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lity  of  California 
hern  Regional 
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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


LOVE-ACRE 


BY  MRS.  HAVELOCK  ELLIS 

THREE  MODERN  SEERS 
THE  IMPERISHABLE  WING 
LOVE-ACRE 
NEIGHBOURS  ALL 


LOVE-ACRE 

AN    IDYL   IN 

TWO  WORLDS 


BY 

MRS.  HAVELOCK  ELLIS 


MITCHELL  KENNERLEY 

PUBLISHER,  NEW  YORK 

MCMXIV 


Copyright  1914   by 
Mitchell  Kennerley 


DEDICATED  TO 
MARY,  MY  MOTHER  EN  LOVE-ACRE, 

AND 

MARGARET,  "THE  MOTHER " 
AT  DORINCOURT 


521953 

LIBRARY 


CONTENTS 

PABT  PAGE 

PROLOGUE  1 1 

I.     THE  PSYCHIC  15 

II.     THE  SHEPHERD  47 

III.  THE  LOVER  75 

IV.  THE  ALIEN  117 
V.     THE  DREAMER  173 

VI.     THE  OUTCAST  201 

VII.     THE  PILGRIM  229 

VIII.     THE  WOMAN  283 

EPILOGUE  295 


PROLOGUE 


PROLOGUE 

Was  it  a  corner  of  paradise  or  a  slum  in 
a  place  of  uncelestial  fire?  Who  can  tell? 
Who  dare  even  guess?  An  observer,  from 
one  of  the  planets,  would  probably  only 
have  seen  a  strange  light  moving  in  and  out 
on  a  plot  of  ground  named  at  random  by 
either  a  world's  surveyor  or  a  casual  visitor 
Love- Acre.  The  light  appearing  and  dis- 
appearing in  the  little  plot  was  certainly 
under  control  in  the  same  way  that  our  lan- 
terns are.  To  an  observer  from  a  distance, 
however,  impressions  may  be  at  fault  or  in- 
tuitions prove  fallacies.  Here  and  there  the 
light  flickered,  glimmered,  and  now  and  then 
almost  went  out.  Then  as  it  reappeared  it 
seemed  to  dip  and  dodge  as  if  the  holder  of 
the  lantern  was  undecided  what  to  gather  in 
such  a  wilderness  of  Love. 

Suddenly  a  spasmodic  jerk  of  the  light 
11 


12  LOVE-ACRE 

seemed  almost  to  suggest  a  laugh.  Then 
there  was  the  intimation  of  a  form.  A  face 
there  certainly  was,  but  one  quite  unlike  the 
face  an  earthly  observer  would  recognize. 
It  seemed  all  breath,  as  if  the  wind  had  taken 
shape,  and  the  oceans  had  borrowed  a  voice 
from  the  storms  to  enable  the  messenger  to 
speak  to  all  the  worlds.  Why  had  this 
strange  gardener  suddenly  stooped  and 
what  had  he  gathered?  Apparently  the 
minutest  atom  of  fluff  like  the  clocks  of  a 
dandelion  with  which  children  play  in  the 
earthly  fields.  The  face  which  was  like  the 
wind  and  the  sea  blew  and  laughed  as  it 
whirled  the  tiny  seed  into  space.  Before  the 
lantern  was  raised  it  was  blown  worlds  away 
from  Love- Acre.  Another  Face,  not  at  all 
like  the  Sea  and  the  Wind  but  just  a  Con- 
suming Light,  saw  this  tiny  speck  of  a  tem- 
pestuous soul  flung  on  the  wings  of  our 
world,  to  wither  there  or  to  blossom  afresh, 
or  perhaps  to  become  a  gardener  in  Love- 
Acre. 


PAET  I. 
THE   PSYCHIC 


THE   PSYCHIC 

TOBIAS  TREWIDDEN,  even  in  petticoats, 
was  a  puzzle  to  those  around  him.  His 
mother  had  died  when  he  was  three  weeks 
old  and  his  father  had  married  shortly  after, 
being  one  of  those  men  unable  to  do  without 
the  domestic  orderliness  of  a  good  woman. 
There  was  no  question  of  aif  ection  in  An- 
drew Trewidden's  second  marriage.  "I've 
a  cub  as  can  hardly  suck,"  he  said,  "a  wife 
scarcely  cold,  and  a  house-place  in  confu- 
sion." Everyone  knew  he  had  saved  money, 
and  so  the  matter  was  settled. 

"I  were  mazed  with  one  woman,"  said 
Andrew  to  Jock  Peters,  "that's  enough  for 
a  life  time.  A  sober  life  counts  as  well  as 
any  other." 

Children  arrived  annually,  and  by  the 
time  seven  had  to  be  provided  for,  besides 

15 


16  LOVE-ACRE 

Tobias,  Andrew's  temper,  which  was  never 
of  the  best,  was  the  terror  of  the  whole  fam- 
ily. Tobias,  as  soon  as  he  began  to  think 
about  things  at  all,  found  he  was  always  in 
the  way.  His  father  seemed  only  to  want 
to  see  him  when  a  good  thrashing  made  it 
necessary.  Sometimes,  however,  Tobias  said 
such  queer  things  that  his  father  forgot  to 
whip  him.  Andrew  informed  his  son  once 
that  he  was  a  wooden  spoon,  which  made  the 
boy  laugh  so  much  he  could  not  stop  even 
when  his  father  laid  him  across  his  knees  and 
administered  the  usual  caning. 

When  Andrew  cursed  at  him  one  day  and 
said  no  man  could  make  a  ray  of  sunshine 
out  of  a  cucumber  or  a  silk  purse  out  of  a 
sow's  ear,  Tobias  nearly  told  him  about  two 
friends  of  his  who  could  do  quite  as  clever 
things  as  that.  His  father  stared  at  him  so 
hard  and  with  such  a  smile  on  one  side  of 
his  mouth  that  Tobias  clapped  his  hands  at 
the  thoughts  he  had  in  his  head,  and  but  for 


THE   PSYCHIC  17 

a  good  box  on  the  ears  might  have  let  out  his 
big  secret. 

When  his  stepmother  told  him  he  was  as 
ugly  as  a  little  devil  and  asked  him  if  his 
face  didn't  hurt,  it  set  him  wondering  as  he 
never  wondered  before  outside  his  own  big 
world.  Somehow,  when  she  asked  him  about 
his  face  and  laughed,  Tobias  felt  a  pain 
worse  than  the  one  he  had  once  in  his  "lower 
chest."  Then  Leah,  the  maid,  had  given  him 
elder  tea  and  he  got  better,  but  he  never  told 
her  of  this  pain,  for  it  seemed  all  over  him. 
It  made  him  want  to  swim  far  out  into  the 
sea  or  to  dance  till  he  was  giddy.  It  was 
some  time  before  he  could  go  to  his  friends 
in  the  Big  World,  as  he  called  it,  for  com- 
fort. This  world  of  his  was  so  very  real  and 
so  very  large.  Sometimes,  at  night,  when 
in  sheer  terror,  he  crept  out  of  bed  to  hide 
in  the  bottom  shelf  of  the  large  store  cup- 
board in  the  bedroom  passage,  in  case  his 
father  might  find  him  and  thrash  him,  he 
found  comfort  and  help  in  this  world  of  his 


18  LOVE-ACRE 

imagination.  The  cupboard  to  Tobias  was 
really  a  cave  where  the  fairies  and  "tired- 
lings"  came  at  will.  Tiredlings  were  little 
people  who  were  not  wanted  anywhere,  and 
fairies  were  tiny  folk  who  laughed  a  great 
deal  about  nothing  and  flew  in  circles  in 
bright  colored  frocks  and  velvet  shorts. 
The  tiredlings  got  heaps  of  help  from  the 
fairies,  and  the  fairies,  in  their  turn,  used 
the  tiredlings  for  odd  errands  requiring 
drudgery  and  memory.  Tobias  held  long 
conversations  with  these  people  whenever  he 
was  locked  up  for  having  his  socks  over  his 
shoes  or  not  having  his  curly  head  tidy  like 
all  the  other  children.  He  loved  catechising 
these  little  people.  They  told  him  it  was  no 
worse  being  shut  up  with  his  dreams  than 
being  shut  up  in  a  summer-house,  as  they 
were  at  times,  with  nothing  to  amuse  them 
but  going  to  sleep.  Tobias  grew  at  last  to 
like  being  locked  up  in  the  attic,  for  Leah 
used  to  slip  up  and  smuggle  a  bit  of  the  end 
of  her  own  pasty  through  the  door  or  a 


THE    PSYCHIC  19 

slice  of  heavy  cake  or  saffron  cake  for 
"Saucy,"  as  she  nicknamed  him  because  his 
eyes  were  so  bright  and  a  smile  nearly  al- 
ways hovered  over  what  his  stepmother 
called  his  "mug  of  a  mouth."  His  little 
brothers  and  sisters  were  rather  fond  of  him, 
but  as  he  never  played  top  or  skipping  rope 
or  hop  at  the  appointed  seasons  they  had 
little  to  do  with  him. 

Trailing  Topsy  and  Fan-Fan,  as  he 
called  the  tiredlings,  were  much  more  ex- 
citing to  be  with  than  his  home  people.  He 
learnt  so  much  from  them  that  after  he  went 
to  school  he  confided  in  them  that  he  had 
been  taught  "a  passil  of  nonsense." 

Fan-Fan  laughed  at  this  and  just  packed 
it  all  up  in  a  cobweb  bag,  and  Trailing 
Topsy  turned  it  over  to  her  great  grand- 
mother's half-nephew  they  called  Turvey, 
who  rode  with  it  on  a  broomstick  to  the 
Land  of  Odds  and  Ends.  Tobias  longed 
to  sit  at  the  back  of  the  broomstick,  as  real 
ladies  and  gentlemen  did  on  the  bicycles 


20  LOVE-ACRE 

that  passed  their  home,  but  Fan-Fan  and 
Trailing  Topsy  said  that  you  had  to  know 
even  more  than  witches  and  grasshoppers  to 
be  allowed  to  do  that.  It  was  not  quite  safe, 
either,  as  all  the  foolishness  of  the  world  was 
taken  there.  A  big  Hop  o'  My  Thumb 
creature,  half  fairy  and  half  mannikin, 
picked  over  the  bundles,  so  Fan-Fan  said, 
and  he  was  rather  a  cross-patch  at  times. 
Turvey  had  evidently  whispered  to  Fan- 
Fan  about  the  things  he  had  seen  once  or 
twice,  but  he  told  him  on  no  account  to  tell 
Trailing  Topsy,  for  it  might  waken  her  up 
for  life.  As  lazy  trailers  were  in  great  re- 
quest at  times,  like  mad  people  were  in  some 
heavenly  districts,  this  would  be  a  dreadful 
thing  to  do.  All  Fan-Fan  confided  to  her, 
for  he  hated  her  to  be  kept  altogether  in  the 
dark,  was  that  it  wasn't  a  fit  place  for  ladies 
to  go  to,  but  really  not  as  bad  as  it  was 
painted.  He  told  Tobias  it  was  not  a  bit 
like  Leah's  dust  heap,  which  he  had  often 
investigated  when  on  a  little  quiet  business 


THE    PSYCHIC  21 

of  his  own.  He  admitted,  however,  after 
Tobias  had  inundated  him  with  more  ques- 
tions, that  it  was  often  a  shining  glory  of  a 
place  where  things  that  were  apparently  no 
'good  anywhere  were  turned  into  candles  or 
nightlights  and  other  servicable  things. 
Tobias  said  he  would  love  to  see  them  chang- 
ing, but  Fan-Fan  grew  very  serious  at  this. 
The  Great  Moth  covers  it  all,  he  said,  and 
under  his  big  wings  no  one  can  see  how 
things  are  done.  From  what  he  could  make 
out  there  was  a  lot  of  pain  attached  to  it  all, 
but  as  the  Big  Moth  was  evidently  not  a 
fairy  or  a  bat  or  a  mannikin,  he  had  learnt 
to  change  things  into  other  things  millions 
of  years  ago,  when  he  was  the  wickedest  of 
the  creepy  crawlies.  This  all  comforted 
Tobias  very  much,  and  when  his  stepmother 
told  him  he  was  worse  than  a  useless  tool 
and  dear  at  any  price,  and  his  father  said 
he  was  a  thorn  in  his  side  and  he  wished  he 
had  never  been  born  or  had  died  when  he 
was  a  baby,  Tobias  only  smiled.  He  knew 


22  LOVE-ACRE 

that  if  it  ever  came  to  the  worst  the  Odds 
and  Ends  Co-operative  Store  could  alter  the 
whole  of  him  and  set  him  going  again  like 
Nathaniel  Martin's  lovely  big  top.  It  was 
just  splendid  to  think  of  it  all,  for,  from 
what  they  often  said  at  home,  it  didn't  seem 
any  good  living  at  all.  He  grew  to  love  the 
Big  Moth  the  more  he  thought  about  him. 
When  he  tried  not  to  answer  back  or  kick 
his  biggest  stepbrother  when  he  pulled  his 
hair,  he  felt  sure  the  Big  Moth  would  be 
pleased.  When  he  was  very  greedy  or 
pitied  himself  till  he  nearly  cried,  he  thought 
perhaps  the  Big  Moth  had  had  a  horrible 
tussle  before  he  learnt  how  to  shelter  woe- 
be-gones  or  make  good-for-nothings  spick 
and  span  for  ordinary  wear  and  tear. 

The  boys  at  school  told  Tobias  his  own 
mother  was  dead  and  buried.  This  puzzled 
him  very  much,  because  he  could  not  under- 
stand why  his  father  had  never  told  him  this 
when  he  said  he  was  so  different  to  the  other 
children.  He  asked  Leah. 


THE    PSYCHIC  23 

She  only  laughed  and  said  it  was  not  for 
little  boys  to  reckon  up  what  was  what,  and 
that  he  had  better  ask  the  fairies  about  his 
mother,  as  she  had  gone  to  dreamland  when 
he  came  out  of  it.  At  last  he  laid  the  whole 
matter  before  Fan-Fan,  who  told  him  that 
his  mother  was  a  sort  of  caterpillar  for  a 
time  after  she  had  kissed  him  and  said  good- 
bye to  him.  He  told  Tobias  that  she  kept 
house  for  some  fairies  who  wore  primrose 
frocks.  Through  these  fairies  she  could 
send  messages  sometimes  to  her  son.  This 
so  excited  Tobias  that  when  Trailing  Topsy 
said  she  had  never  been  quick  enough  to  fol- 
low the  yellow  fairies,  who  were  the  swift- 
est of  them  all,  he  wondered  how  she  could 
bear  up  under  her  laziness.  Fan-Fan  told 
him,  however,  that  he  knew  his  mother  quite 
well,  as  his  wings  were  very  strong  and  he 
had  no  leanings  to  sleepiness  like  Trailing 
Topsy.  His  mother  was  the  best  house- 
wife in  the  fairy  country,  he  said,  and  she 
had  a  little  shop  there  in  a  beautiful  garden 


24  LOVE-ACRE 

where  she  dealt  in  dust  for  butterflies'  wings 
and  little  gossamer  harpoons  with  which  to 
catch  small  flies  too  young  to  stick  properly 
in  cobwebs.  These  midgets  of  flies  were 
more  useful,  too,  alive  than  dead,  and  so 
they  were  worth  catching.  Fan-Fan  also 
told  Tobias  that  his  mother  lived  in  a  trans- 
parent house  where  she  made  sweet  little 
dew-drop  earrings  for  the  fairies'  wedding 
gifts.  She  also  sent  the  tiny  pink  fairies, 
who  were  too  young  to  do  anything  else,  to 
drink  up  ugly  children's  tears.  That  was 
why  sometimes  the  tears  of  a  little  child  went 
away  so  quickly  and  a  strong  man's  tears 
only  dried  up  in  his  heart,  being  so  big  and 
heavy  a  fairy  could  not  swallow  them.  This 
made  Tobias  know  his  mother  was  always 
thinking  of  him,  and  in  a  sudden  burst  of 
confidence  he  told  Fan-Fan  and  Trailing 
Topsy  what  his  stepmother  had  said  about 
his  face.  It  was  so  funny,  the  way  he  told 
it,  that  even  lazy  Trailing  Topsy  rolled 
head  over  wings,  for  she  had  no  heels,  and 


THE    PSYCHIC  25 

Fan-Fan  said  that  some  things  silly  mor- 
tals said  were  enough  to  turn  even  a  wasp's 
eyes  inside  out.  When  they  had  finished 
laughing  Tobias  heard  a  fluttering  of  wings, 
like  the  sound  of  a  windmill  his  father  had 
driven  him  to  see  one  day  when  he  was  buy- 
ing sheep.  Thousands  and  thousands  of 
fairies  seemed  to  come  from  far  off  and 
they  were  the  color  of  mushrooms  and  dog- 
roses,  the  yellow  ones  were  just  the  color 
of  the  primroses  and  daffodils  in  the  woods 
at  Easter.  All  the  fairies  were  laughing, 
and  Tobias  drooped  his  head  in  shame,  think- 
ing it  was  at  his  dreadful  ugliness.  Sud- 
denly they  all  seemed  to  cross  radiant  wings 
with  slender  legs,  and  before  Tobias  could 
say  "sawdust,"  his  favorite  expression  when 
surprised,  he  was  floating,  floating  he  never 
knew  where.  All  he  knew  was  when  Fan- 
Fan  and  Trailing  Topsy  were  tickling  him 
with  some  Old  Man's  Beard  and  propping 
his  mouth  open  with  a  sunflower  seed. 
"It's  only  once  in  ever  so  long  a  time," 


26  LOVE-ACRE 

said  Fan-Fan,  "that  mothers  send  all  the 
errand  fairies  with  a  message  at  once.  It 
is  only  the  deep  hurt  of  a  little  human  child 
that  makes  it  worth  while.  Your  dear  face 
hurt  you  so  that  she  had  you  taken  to  her, 
but  if  you  had  really  looked  at  her  your 
eyes  would  have  been  no  more  use  in  your 
face.  What  she  whispered  in  your  ears, 
though,  you  will  never  be  able  to  tell  any- 
one, not  even  to  Trailing  Topsy  or  to  me." 

Tobias  felt  his  fat  little  cheeks. 

"Perhaps  she  put  me  wiv'  Jesus,"  he  said, 
"and  let  me  play  rounders  with  him." 

Trailing  Topsy  flew  away  at  this  and 
Fan-Fan  cried  out  "Hoots  and  Treacle," 
which  made  Tobias  know  he  was  hungry. 
When  his  stepmother  gave  him  plum  jam  he 
longed  for  golden  syrup,  but  he  did  not 
really  mind.  He  just  said  "Mammy  Love," 
which  made  his  stepmother  say,  "Dratted 
queer  kid,"  but  how  could  she  know  he 
was  talking  to  his  own  dear  mother? 

Nothing  ever  hurt  quite  so  badly  again 


THE    PSYCHIC  27 

because  he  had  not  only  Trailing  Topsy, 
Fan-Fan  and  the  Big  Moth  as  companions, 
to  say  nothing  of  a  host  of  lovely  colored 
fairies,  but,  better  than  all,  he  had  a  real 
mother  of  his  very  own,  keeping  a  shop  in 
heaven,  with  such  "nicies"  in  it  that  Mother 
Carbines  and  her  Tom-Thumbs  and  Pearly 
Drops  were  nothing  in  comparison. 

One  day  Tobias  met  a  man  very  like  his 
father,  but  with  such  a  ragged  coat  and  with 
so  many  holes  in  his  boots  that  you  could 
hardly  see  the  leather.  He  was  so  friendly 
that  Tobias  confided  in  him  that  his  own 
mother  was  supposed  to  be  dead,  but  that 
she  really  was  nothing  of  the  kind.  He 
thought  it  would  cheer  the  kind  man,  who 
said  his  mother  was  dead  and  that  he  had  no 
friends.  Tobias  felt  very  happy  when  the 
poor  fellow  told  him  that  his  own  dear 
mother  with  her  little  shop  was  no  dream  to 
the  ragged  man,  but  that  he  used  to  know 
her  quite  well,  and  so  would  Tobias  please 
give  him  a  penny  at  once.  Tobias  said  he 


28  LOVE-ACRE 

had  no  penny,  but  he  had  a  money  box  with 
ten  three-penny  bits  in  it.  Would  that  do? 
It  seemed  very  little  to  give  to  such  a  nice 
man.  Tobias  found  out  later  that  he  had 
been  "taken  in,"  but  what  that  exactly 
meant  he  must  ask  Fan-Fan.  Anyhow,  the 
man  seemed  happy,  and  Trailing  Topsy 
would  say  nothing  else  mattered.  His  sis- 
ter Patience  told  his  stepmother  what  he 
had  done,  and  he  had  to  go  without  pudding 
for  a  week.  Fan-Fan  said  that  being  taken 
in  was  neither  here  nor  there,  so  long  as  he 
didn't  turn  into  a  begging  boy  too. 

Fear  began  to  leave  Tobias  little  by  little. 
Only  once,  when  he  was  put  to  drag  a  big 
roller  over  the  orchard  grass  to  "break  him," 
as  his  father  declared,  was  he  a  little  afraid 
because  something  in  his  chest  seemed  to  be 
swelling  till  he  felt  the  lump  was  as  big  as 
himself.  He  thought  he  was  fading  away, 
but  he  got  over  that.  Soon  after,  because 
he  had  cut  off  his  eyebrows  to  make  himself 
more  like  Fan-Fan  and  Trailing  Topsy,  his 


THE    PSYCHIC  29 

father  thrashed  him  harder  than  ever  be- 
fore. He  would  not  scream,  because  Fan- 
Fan  said  only  things  that  would  never  grow 
wings  made  a  fuss  if  they  were  hurt.  He 
felt,  however,  he  must  do  something,  so  he 
bit  his  father's  leg.  He  thought  he  should 
grow  into  ice  he  was  so  terrified  afterwards, 
for  Mr.  Trewidden  used  words  he  gener- 
ally only  said  to  Tom  the  Carter  and  Fly 
the  bull-dog.  Tobias  ran  away  when  he 
heard  his  father  swearing  so  loudly  and 
meant  never  to  come  back.  Even  the 
thought  of  his  mother  only  made  him  lie  on 
his  face  and  cry  like  a  silly  girl.  He  did  not 
return  of  his  own  free  will.  Leah  found 
him  in  the  paddock  fast  asleep  with  his  head 
against  a  tree  stump  and  "a  yellow  light  all 
amongst  his  curls,"  she  told  her  mistress. 
She  added  "that  the  setting  sun  played  on 
him  like  a  Bible  story."  He  had  such  a 
dazed  look  in  his  eyes  that  they  sent  for  old 
Hannah,  the  midwife,  who  ordered  a  purge 
and  a  tumbler  of  salt  and  water. 


30  LOVE-ACRE 

"HeVe  taken  a  fear,"  she  said,  "and 
seemly  'ave  been  beyond  mortal  reach." 

Tobias  smiled,  but  never  told  even  Leah 
what  lovely  dreams  he  had  had  and  that  he 
had  no  idea  where  he  had  really  been.  Even 
Fan-Fan  himself  said  he  was  not  sure  where 
people  like  Tobias  went  to  at  times.  He 
said  anyone  who  could  live  in  two  worlds 
was  liable  to  go  to  a  third,  so  they  must 
leave  it  at  that.  Tobias  asked  Trailing 
Topsy  why  he  need  ever  go  to  school  or  even 
home  again.  Fan-Fan  answered  him,  as 
Trailing  Topsy  was  half  asleep,  and  whisked 
a  sort  of  tail  he  kept  under  one  wing  for 
special  occasions. 

"Mannikin,"  he  said,  "some  secrets  never 
leak  out.  Pepper  put  on  the  bill  of  a  black- 
bird might  make  him  sing  it  out,  but  even 
then  they  might  misunderstand  the  lan- 
guage. Imps  and  fairies  never  minded," 
he  added,  "not  a  wing's  flutter,  where  they 
were  or  what  became  of  them." 


THE   PSYCHIC  31 

"There's  always  the  sun,"  yawned  Trail- 
ing Topsy,  "and  others  do  the  rest." 

Fan-Fan  put  out  his  tongue,  which  was 
long  and  narrow,  and  glanced  sideways  at 
Trailing  Topsy. 

"She's  so  very  sweet  asleep,"  he  said,  "and 
a  dewdrop  suffices  when  she  is  awake.  We 
never  fuss  so  long  as  we're  together." 

Tobias  tried  to  imitate  his  little  friends, 
and  when  the  school-mistress  boxed  his  ears 
and  put  him  to  the  bottom  of  the  class  he 
tried  to  forget  the  pain  and  thought  of 
fairyland.  He  was  always  very  perplexed 
at  the  Scripture  lessons  and  mixed  the 
hymns  up  with  things  to  do  with  his  father 
and  the  home  life.  He  had  to  wear  a  dunce's 
cap  the  whole  afternoon  because  when  he 
was  told  to  repeat  a  hymn  to  the  minister's 
wife,  who  had  come  into  the  school  unex- 
pectedly, he  had  shocked  her  so  much  she 
nearly  cried.  Her  face  was  burning  red 
and  she  wiped  her  eyes  as  if  she  must  choke. 
Tobias  repeated  the  verse  to  Fan-Fan  and 


32  LOVE-ACRE 

Trailing  Topsy,  who,  perched  on  a  fuchsia 
bough,  listened  intently  with  their  heads  on 
one  side  and  bulging  eyes.  Tobias  repeated 
it  very  softly: 

"Onward,  Christian  soldiers, 
Marching  as  to  war 
With  the  cross  of  Jesus 
Going  on  before." 

Fan-Fan  said  he  thought  the  only  thing 
wrong  with  it  was  that  it  was  like  the  rhymes 
the  teeny-weenies  told  the  young  mice  for 
practice,  but  Trailing  Topsy  said  she 
thought  there  was  more  in  it  than  that  or  no 
human  would  cry  over  it.  Fan-Fan  saw 
he  had  not  really  cheered  Tobias,  so  he  made 
up  something  as  near  it  as  he  could,  for 
fairies  like  Fan-Fan  and  Trailing  Topsy 
are  like  Chinamen  in  the  way  they  can  imi- 
tate. 

Forward,  little  Brother, 

Into  light  and  flame, 

Where  you'll  find  your  Mother 

Just  the  very  same. 


THE   PSYCHIC  33 

The  mere  mention  of  his  mother  made 
Tobias  quite  happy.  That  afternoon  the 
school-mistress  gave  him  another  hymn  to 
master,  and  it  was  astonishing  how  quickly 
he  learnt  it.  With  his  hands  well  tucked  in 
his  pockets,  he  repeated  it  with  the  same 
pomposity  that  his  father  gave  out  family 
prayers  on  Sundays. 

"Gentle  Jesus,  meek  and  mild, 
Look  upon  a  little  child. 
Pity  my  simplicity. 
Gentle  Jesus,  come  to  tea." 

"Tobias  Trewidden,"  said  the  teacher, 
"are  you  a  willin'  liar  or  what?"  Tobias 
suddenly  saw  Fan-Fan  outside  the  window 
and  without  Trailing  Topsy.  He  simply 
answered  what  he  heard. 

"I'm  Mammy's  own  little  make-up,"  he 
said.  The  teacher  had  just  had  a  letter  from 
her  sweetheart,  in  which  he  had  said  some 
quite  idiotic  things  too,  so  she  only  said, 


34  LOVE-ACRE 

"Don't  be  foolish,  Tobias  Trewidden,  and 
learn  it  again." 

Tobias  was  told  marvellous  things  by 
Fan-Fan  and  Trailing  Topsy.  At  Sunday 
school,  because  of  this,  he  often  forgot  he 
was  not  with  his  own  little  playmates  and 
asked  the  new  teacher  if  angels  laid  eggs 
like  caterpillars  and  if  they  had  web-feet 
as  well  as  wings.  The  day  after  he  had 
asked  these  questions  the  school-mistress 
came  to  see  Mrs.  Trewidden  and  told  her 
she  ought  to  see  a  doctor  about  Tobias.  His 
stepmother  said  she  knew  her  stepson  was 
not  "exactly,"  but  whenever  he  was  "fanci- 
kel"  he  was  always  tidy  and  good,  and  that, 
as  he  ate  well  and  slept  longer  than  the 
other  children,  there  could  be  nothing  really 
the  matter  with  him. 

"His  brain  is  too  active,"  said  the  school- 
mistress, and  Mrs.  Trewidden  said  that  it 
was  not  more  so  than  his  body,  which  was 
like  a  bit  of  quicksilver  more  than  anything 
else.  When  Tobias  asked  Fan-Fan  why  he 


THE    PSYCHIC  35 

had  made  the  lady  jump  when  he  had  asked 
about  the  angel's  feet,  he  did  not  answer  for 
a  minute.  Trailing  Topsy  opened  her 
mouth  for  a  dewdrop,  which  Fan-Fan,  to 
save  time,  popped  into  it.  Then  Trailing 
Topsy  spoke  quite  quickly,  before  Fan-Fan 
had  time  to  invent  an  answer.  He  was 
really  up  a  bramble  bush,  so  to  speak,  and 
Trailing  Topsy  knew  it.  She  loved  him 
too  much  to  go  to  sleep  when  she  could  help 
him. 

"It's  because  she  didn't  know  anything 
about  eggs  or  angels  either,"  said  Trailing 
Topsy.  "Don't  you  remember,  Fan-Fan, 
that  you  were  once  asked  by  a  glow-worm 
why  I  didn't  shine,  and  you  nearly  broke  in 
two  with  rage?"  She  turned  to  Tobias. 
"He,"  pointing  to  Fan-Fan  and  fluttering 
her  wings,  "went  quite  discolored  for  days 
after  and  only  damp  clover  leaves  on  his 
head  and  the  scent  of  evening  stock  in  the 
moonlight  revived  him." 

Tobias  was  always  getting  into  trouble 


36  LOVE-ACRE 

about  "shedding"  his  clothes,  as  Leah  put 
it.  He  loved  the  soft  warm  air  to  kiss  his 
body  and  the  sea  to  hold  him  fast  and  hug 
him  and  cradle  him.  He  persuaded  his  little 
brothers  to  play  rounders  with  him  without 
their  clothes,  and  this  led  to  punishments  all 
round.  He  consulted  Fan-Fan  as  to  why 
all  this  was  considered  wicked.  Fan-Fan 
sat  up  like  a  minister  and  wiped  his  mouth. 

"It's  just  envy,"  said  Trailing  Topsy, 
"and  no  wonder." 

"She's  right  there,"  said  Fan-Fan.  "They 
steal  fur  and  feathers  from  all  our  relations 
and  they  get  very  nervous  in  only  their  own 
skins  because  the  fairies  can  see  all  the  draw- 
backs." 

"It's  the  buttoning  and  unbuttoning 
which  is  so  wearisome,"  said  Tobias.  Fan- 
Fan  and  Trailing  Topsy  buzzed  joyfully. 

"We're  buttoned  to  last  till  we  go  to  the 
Odds  and  Ends  Corner,"  said  Trailing 
Topsy,  "when  it  doesn't  matter  a  bit  if  they 


THE   PSYCHIC  37 

do  undress  us.  It's  not  our  affair  then,  but 
theirs." 

One  day  Tobias  was  very  surprised  when 
his  father  took  him  on  his  knee  and  told  him 
his  grandfather,  his  own  mother's  father, 
was  dead. 

"How  very  jolly,"  said  Tobias.  "Did  he 
write  and  tell  you  ?" 

He  never  could  understand  why  his  father 
pushed  him  away  and  said,  "Cold-hearted 
little  idiot."  He  shyly  asked  his  stepmother 
why  his  grandfather  minded  dying. 

"He's  left  a  lot  of  money  behind,"  she 
said.  Tobias  asked  his  little  friends  about 
this,  but  they  were  half  asleep,  he  thought, 
for  all  they  murmured  was  "foolishness." 
Trailing  Topsy  opened  one  eye  and  said  a 
friend  of  theirs  had  tried  to  eat  the  tail  end 
of  a  rainbow  and  was  slowly  dying,  but  no 
one  bothered  as  to  what  she  would  leave  be- 
hind. Fan-Fan  said  it  would  probably  be 
a  trail  of  glory,  but  Tobias  found  out  he 
was  laughing  at  him.  He  was  nearly  cry- 


38  LOVE-ACRE 

ing  about  it,  but  Fan-Fan  and  Trailing 
Topsy  flew  on  to  his  shoulder  and  whispered, 
"Nicer  than  money  bags,  anyway." 

An  Inspector  came  to  look  at  the  school 
one  day.  He  called  Tobias  to  him  in  his 
private  room,  for  the  child's  eager  eyes  and 
gentle  face  had  attracted  him,  and  he  found 
that  Tobias  answered  easily  and  cleverly  all 
his  questions.  At  last  the  examiner  asked 
the  boy  if  there  was  not  something  he  would 
like  to  know. 

"Yes,"  said  Tobias,  suddenly  feeling  as 
much  at  ease  as  with  Fan-Fan  and  Trailing 
Topsy. 

"Well?"  asked  the  Inspector. 

Tobias  put  his  chubby  hand  on  the  visitor's 
knee. 

"Can  God  really  do  everything?" 

"Certainly,"  was  the  answer. 

"Can  He,"  asked  Tobias,  "make  a  stone 
too  big  for  Himself  to  lift?" 

"Good  God!"  cried  the  Inspector,  and 
Tobias  seemed  quite  satisfied.  It  was  a 


THE    PSYCHIC  39 

shorter  answer  than  Fan-Fan  or  Trailing 
Topsy  would  have  given,  but  it  evidently 
meant  He  could. 

At  last  the  happy  day  came  when  Tobias 
left  school  and  the  question  arose  as  to  what 
was  to  be  done  with  him.  A  blacksmith  was 
out  of  the  question,  as  he  was  not  strong 
enough.  A  butcher's  apprenticeship  was  of- 
fered. 

"He's  so  damned  fond  of  animals,  there's 
his  chance,"  said  his  father.  His  step- 
mother broke  in. 

"There's  what  belongs  and  what  don't  be- 
long," she  said.  "Now  Nathaniel  Thomas 
could  eat  a  pasty  without  turnin'  a  hadr 
while  he  was  in  the  midst  of  skinning  a  bul" 
lock,  but  Tobias  would  only  retch  and  go 
fainty  at  any  portion  of  the  trade.  He 
don't  never  eat  lamb  because  he  says  he 
fancies  he  hears  the  bleatin',  so  he'd  make 
but  a  poor  butcher.  It  needs  the  proper 
constitootion,  same  as  our  own  children 
have." 


40  LOVE-ACRE 

A  cousin  of  Mr.  Trewidden,  who  was  a 
farmer,  happened  to  come  in  one  evening, 
and  incidentally  said  he  needed  a  shepherd 
boy. 

"That's  perhaps  a  better  trade  for  the 
youngster,"  said  Andrew  Trewidden.  To- 
bias was  called  in  and  the  matter  was  settled 
that  night. 

When  Fan-Fan  and  Trailing  Topsy  were 
told  of  this  great  event  they  circled  wring 
over  wing  above  the  head  of  Tobias.  Trail- 
ing Topsy  soon  tired,  but  Fan-Fan  seemed 
to  go  up  as  high  as  a  skylark.  The  drawl 
of  Trailing  Topsy  was  slower  than  ever  as 
she  watched  Fan-Fan  till  he  was  out  of 
sight. 

"He's  gone  to  where  the  homing  pigeons 
rise,"  she  said.  "He's  a  great  one  for  soar- 
ing. It  makes  me  giddy  so  I  don't  go.  If 
they  venture  far  enough  up,  the  eyes  with 
slits  can  see  hundreds  of  miles  off,  and  they 
often  get  the  great  secrets  that  way.  Fan- 
Fan  has  heard  them  from  only  as  far  as  a 


THE    PSYCHIC  41 

lark  rises."  She  turned  round  and  round 
on  a  large  bed  of  soft  green  moss  and  went 
to  sleep.  Fan-Fan  suddenly  dropped  down 
again.  He  seemed  in  a  great  flutter  and 
never  even  noticed  Trailing  Topsy,  a  most 
unusual  thing  for  him.  He  jumped  on  the 
arm  of  Tobias. 

"You're  going  nearer  and  nearer  the 
Great  Moth,"  he  said.  "Out  in  the  cool 
nights  and  the  quiet  days,  with  the  sheep 
and  lambs,  the  messages  will  be  sent  to  you 
from  the  Lullaby  Shores  and  the  Make- 
Shift  Meadows.  Even  birds  can't  make  out 
all  the  signs  and  tokens  sent  from  there,  and 
it's  appointed  so,  for  fear  they  would  never 
trespass  upon  the  earth  again  and  bring  com- 
fort to  the  wingless  ones  who  only  sing  in 
their  hearts.  If  mortals  could  hear  some  of 
the  messages  they  would  die,  like  some  do 
of  too  much  sunshine.  Far  away,  so  far  that 
the  Great  Moth  has  to  travel  miles  and 
miles  before  he  can  give  the  tiniest  message, 
there  is  a  Wonder  World  called  Love- Acre. 


42  LOVE-ACRE 

The  greatest  secrets  that  are  sent  to  us  come 
from  there.  Sometimes,  on  moonlight  nights 
or  in  the  red  sunrises,  the  fairies  with  purple 
skirts  and  carrying  juices  squeezed  from 
fruits  from  over  all  the  earth,  come  and  sing 
in  the  big  mountains.  In  those  songs  are 
some  of  the  great  mysteries  of  life  and  love. 
They  can  only  tell  them  to  those  who  have 
been  friends  with  all  of  us  and  who  cannot 
speak  the  foolish  words  which  hurt  the 
silence.  They  took  you  away  once  and  they 
never  forget  after  that.  Poor  Boy,  poor 
Boy." 

Tobias  was  very  heavy-hearted.  His 
friend  was  talking  like  the  Bible  and  the 
school-teacher,  and  it  made  him  very  sad. 
Suddenly  Fan-Fan  saw  Trailing  Topsy 
asleep  and  almost  chirruped  at  the  sight. 

"I've  been  so  high,"  said  Fan-Fan,  "I've 
got  a  dragon-fly's  jerks.  A  lark  gave  me  a 
message  and  I'm  overweighted  with  it.  He 
brought  it  from  a  Golden  Eagle,  who  got  it 


THE    PSYCHIC  43 

straight  from  Love- Acre.  It  sounds  gib- 
berish to  me  and  no  play  in  it  anywhere." 
Fan-Fan's  eyes  bulged  more  than  ever. 

"What  is  it?"  asked  Tobias  anxiously. 

"It's  this,"  said  Fan-Fan  slowly.  "Fly 
without  wings,  dream  without  sleep  and  see 
from  within.  It  means  good-bye,  little 
brother,"  he  ended  sadly,  "and  that  is  all  I 
know." 

"It's  terrible  after  all,  then,"  said  Tobias 
slowly,  "to  be  a  shepherd." 


PAUT   IT 
THE    SHEPHERD 


THE  SHEPHERD 

TOBIAS  TREWIDDEN'S  childhood  had  been 
spent  in  fairyland,  the  ogres  in  it  had  been 
the  mortals  who  destroyed  his  fancies  and 
disturbed  his  dreams.  Fan-Fan  and  Trail- 
ing Topsy,  his  imaginary  mates,  seemed 
realities  and  affinities,  while  his  stepmother, 
his  father,  and  his  little  stepbrothers  and 
sisters  were  shades  in  comparison.  It  is 
true  that  he  had  lived  in  a  world  of  gossip, 
but  it  was  a  gossip  which  had  no  malice  in 
it  and  no  bitterness.  His  little  friends  were 
Nature's  god-children,  and  so  were  reverent 
and  humorous.  Through  them  Tobias  had 
come  to  realize  that  the  ants,  the  flies,  the 
spiders,  the  beetles,  and  especially  the  drag- 
on-flies had  work  as  great  to  do,  and  ends 
as  wonderful  to  serve,  as  his  father,  the  min- 
ister, or  even  the  doctor  in  his  little  village. 

47 


48  LOVE-ACRE 

When  it  was  decided  that  Tobias  should 
leave  school  and  become  a  shepherd  a  deep 
dreaminess  took  possession  of  him.  This 
was  not  because  he  had  left  school,  for  there 
his  fancies  had  been  stifled,  but  because  Fan- 
Fan  had  told  him  that  it  was  good-bye  to 
him  and  to  Trailing  Topsy,  the  two  great 
friends  of  his  childhood.  He  found  he  had 
literally  "changed  worlds,"  and  Fan-Fan 
must  have  known  what  this  meant.  To  be 
a  shepherd  was  evidently  to  enter  a  region 
of  terrible  desolation.  At  first  it  was  almost 
more  than  he  could  bear,  especially  when 
things  in  the  very  image  of  Fan-Fan  and 
Trailing  Topsy  whisked  by  him  with  no 
recognition  of  him.  It  was  a  new  world  of 
Silence,  and  it  terrified  him  more  than  the 
thought  of  his  father  with  the  cane  in  his 
hand  ready  to  strike  him.  He  missed  the 
laughter  and  the  joy  and  the  nonsense-ex- 
planations he  had  received  from  the  insect 
world  which  transformed  his  unhappy  child- 
hood into  beauty  and  joy.  Was  this  being 


THE    SHEPHERD  49 

grown  up,  he  wondered?  How  long  it 
seemed  since  he  heard  last  about  the  yellow 
fairies  and  the  Great  Moth  and  his  real 
mother  in  heaven,  with  her  little  shop  there 
full  of  wonders!  Everything  in  shepherd- 
ing seemed  so  very  still  except  the  sheep 
and  the  magpies.  He  felt  sure  Fan-Fan 
would  have  objected  to  their  company,  as  he 
did  to  owls  and  woodpeckers.  "The  Great 
Moth,"  Fan-Fan  once  said  to  him,  "puts  a 
world  of  nonsense  into  a  cobweb  or  a  nut- 
shell. It  is  often  to  be  found  in  the  skins 
of  sheep  and  of  some  mortals,  but  it  is 
packed  so  tightly  that  lots  of  people  never 
guess  it  is  there.  There  are  those  who  can 
chatter,  and  those  who  can  sing,  and  others 
— well, — the  Silence  may  tell."  Fan-Fan 
never  finished.  Were  the  others  here,  To- 
bias wondered,  and  was  all  this  dreadful 
ache  in  him  their  ache  trying  to  speak,  or 
was  it  his  fault  because  he  could  not  hear? 
He  shivered  with  the  gloom  which  fell  upon 
his  spirits,  especially  at  night.  There  seemed 


50  LOVE-ACRE 

no  play  anywhere,  only  mystery  and  silence. 
His  sheep,  huddled  into  a  gray  throbbing 
mass,  which  gave  forth  plaintive  cries  at 
intervals,  yielded  him  no  sense  of  compan- 
ionship. The  desolation  was  on  him  which 
divides  one  life  from  another.  Speech  had 
comforted  him  in  his  child  life.  Silence  had 
to  be  reckoned  with  in  the  new.  The  curly 
head  drooped  wearily  and  at  last  dropped 
into  sleep  in  a  perplexity  which  even  dreams 
could  not  unravel.  His  food  was  brought 
to  him  once  a  day  by  the  village  carrier,  part 
of  whose  round  was  near  the  end  of  one  of 
the  big  fields  Tobias  had  to  guard.  The 
man  took  away  one  basket  and  put  down 
another,  and  rarely  spoke  to  Tobias.  The 
Shepherd's  change  of  linen  was  brought  in 
the  same  way,  and  his  little  hut  he  kept  eas- 
ily clean  and  sweet,  to  sleep  in  when  the 
weather  was  very  bad.  He  rarely  went 
home,  as  it  seemed  only  to  increase  his  gen- 
eral feeling  of  hopelessness.  The  voices  ac- 
centuated the  terror  of  the  silence  and  the 


THE    SHEPHERD  51 

silence  vulgarized  the  voices.  Tobias  came 
to  the  conclusion  that  all  the  evil  was  in  him 
and  the  less  said  or  thought  of  it  the  better. 
It  was  quite  two  months  before  the 
strange  sadness  began  to  depart  from  the 
heart  of  Tobias.  He  never  quite  knew  how 
the  change  came.  A  fear  had  grown  upon 
him  again,  the  fear  which  Fan-Fan  and 
Trailing  Topsy  had  once  before  managed 
to  send  away,  the  fear  the  alien  always  has 
that  there  is  no  real  place  in  the  world  for 
him.  He  tried  to  pray,  but  it  was  no  use. 
He  found  he  could  only  stammer :  "Mother, 
dear,  and  the  fairies,  this  is  not  what  I  want 
and  I  don't  know  how  to  get  it."  Only  the 
round  face  of  the  moon  seemed  to  be  laugh- 
ing at  him,  and  the  stars,  in  their  baby  way, 
twinkled  at  his  fears.  He  was  seventeen 
and  should  have  known  better,  but  when  he 
fell  asleep  big  drops  were  in  his  eyes  as  he 
heard  the  baaing  of  his  flock  before  he 
passed  into  dreamland.  No  wonder  the  face 
of  the  moon  seemed  to  widen  into  a  smile 


52  LOVE-ACRE 

as  she  looked  down  upon  the  little  huddled 
form  of  a  mortal  afraid  of  her  rapture  and 
her  power.  The  white  glory  touched  his 
face,  and  the  outstretched  hand,  flung  open 
in  despair,  suddenly  closed  in  his  sleep  as  if 
it  had  grasped  a  shepherd's  crook.  It  was 
more  than  this,  however,  that  the  silence  of 
sleep  had  brought  to  Tobias.  When  he 
awoke  a  great  longing  was  on  him,  the  long- 
ing to  shout  or  sing  or  dance  or  swim.  He 
ran  to  the  river  and  flung  aside  his  few 
clothes,  and  as  the  water  folded  round  his 
bare  body  he  began  to  understand.  He  had 
been  to  his  mother,  he  felt  sure,  and  she  had 
whispered  to  him  and  so  taken  some  of  the 
ache  from  his  heart.  Once  before  she  had 
done  it,  and  nothing  else  after  mattered  in 
the  same  way,  because  he  understood.  Now 
he  became  certain  that  the  river  was  his 
brother  and  the  clouds  were  his  sisters,  and 
the  moon  and  the  stars  and  the  tender  grass 
and  even  the  rocks  were  a  part  of  him  and 
he  of  them.  The  silence  was  really  only 


THE    SHEPHERD  53 

their  deep  voices  which  he  was  too  young 
and  foolish  to  understand.  He  could  scarce- 
ly eat  that  day,  he  was  so  excited.  The  grass 
called  to  him,  and  he  lay  down  on  it  and 
heard  it  speaking  to  itself.  He  felt  certain 
the  trees  had  ears  and  even  hushed  voices, 
and  also  a  great  patience,  like  the  sheep  with 
their  lambs.  The  flowers  suddenly  became 
all  eyes  to  him,  and  as  he  gazed  at  them  he 
understood  why  the  scent  had  to  come  from 
some  of  them  or  they  might  have  died  of 
trying  to  speak  and  failing.  His  flock 
seemed  almost  a  moving  mockery  in  front 
of  the  beautiful  Silence,  and  Tobias  felt  him- 
self almost  a  ghost  in  the  midst  of  these 
splendid  realities.  As  one  in  a  wilderness, 
and  yet  crying  out  with  wonder  at  the  joys 
to  be  found  there,  he  realized  how  little 
school  had  taught  him.  Here  was  Dame 
Nature,  with  her  wide  open  book  in  her 
hand,  and  he  learnt  happily  and  rapidly, 
and  his  heart  sang  within  him.  He  found 
new  names  for  everything  about  him,  and 


54  LOVE-ACRE 

he  slowly  realized  that  he  could  speak  within 
himself  and  get  an  answer  back.  The  dif- 
ference between  that  sort  of  talking  and 
human  voices  was  the  difference  between  a 
half  moon  and  a  full  moon.  He  began  to 
pity  Fan-Fan  and  Trailing  Topsy  in  case 
they  had  never  fallen  on  the  great  secrets. 
Perhaps  insects  only  knew  the  little  secrets, 
and  the  Silence  held  fast  the  bigger  ones. 
The  grass  revealed  more  to  him  than  any- 
thing else.  Perhaps  it  was  because  he  rested 
on  it  so  much.  Its  life  seemed  so  curious. 
It  quivered  cool  thoughts,  and  yet  in  a  way 
it  looked  like  little  green  swords  of  defence 
shielding  the  crotchety  old  earth.  He  began 
to  understand  that  it  carpeted  the  world, 
not  only  to  give  food  and  rest  to  animals 
and  humans,  but  also  for  its  own  peculiar 
joy,  the  joy  of  cradling  mushrooms  and 
listening  to  the  music  made  by  swinging 
harebells  in  a  midsummer  madness.  It  was 
like  a  soft  mother  and  father  in  one.  It 
understood  the  whole  world,  and  so  encom- 


55 

passed  it  with  a  softness  and  a  deliciousness 
that  later  in  life  Tobias  only  found  in  an 
Irish  heart. 

One  day,  when  Tobias  was  watching  the 
swaying  of  the  ripe  corn,  he  clapped  his 
hands  in  glee.  He  had  found  out  the  glow- 
ing secrets  of  the  poppies.  He  suddenly 
realized  that  they  were  a  special  sort  of  red 
fairy  sent  to  ease  the  pain  in  the  ripening 
corn,  as  it  grew  in  dignity,  in  order  later  to 
feed  its  enemies,  who  cut  it  down  just  when 
it  was  the  strongest  and  the  happiest.  The 
red  poppies  were  there  ready  to  give  rest 
and  then  to  die  with  their  lovers.  "How 
wonderful!"  cried  Tobias,  "to  die  for  what 
you  love,  but  then — "  and  his  strong  young 
face  clouded — "what  is  love?"  The  magpie, 
as  it  flew  past  him,  tried  to  answer,  but  its 
language  was  so  strange  that  Tobias  simply 
laughed.  He  grew  to  love  the  corn  and  the 
little  dainty  poppies,  and  wondered  what 
they  said  to  one  another.  One  night,  when 
the  moon  was  at  its  full,  he  seemed  to  hear 


56  LOVE-ACRE 

the  voices  of  the  corn  and  the  poppies  dis- 
tinctly. It  was  not  the  wind  or  the  mur- 
mur of  the  sea,  but  something  mysterious 
and  sweet,  and  yet  glowing  and  masterful, 
and  as  clear  as  a  bell,  and  the  timid,  laugh- 
ing voices  of  the  poppies  answered  as  the 
strong  wind  flung  them  against  the  corn- 
stalks. He  had  never  heard  either  that  rasp 
or  that  sweetness  in  any  human  voice.  Now 
and  again  he  felt  sure  he  caught  a  twitter 
among  the  poppies  like  the  mother-bird  in 
her  nest  in  the  spring. 

As  time  went  on,  Tobias  became  almost 
a  sun- worshipper,  and  from  its  first  blush 
in  the  morning  to  its  rosy  rest  in  the  evening 
he  drove  his  sheep  to  where  he  could  catch 
its  passionate  breath  on  his  limbs.  It  made 
his  heart  swell  and  sink  with  the  aching  in 
him  to  be  like  it,  a  light  and  a  flame  and  a 
great  warmth  to  cheer  what  was  cold  or 
lonely.  He  often  held  his  thin  body  with 
both  hands,  as  if  he  must  break  it  to  find  a 
lamp  inside  him  or  at  least  a  glow-worm. 


THE    SHEPHERD  57 

"Something  burns  so  within  me,"  he  mut- 
tered. "Something  which  can't  get  out  of 
me.  It  is  caged  and  hurts  me.  I  must  get 
it  free."  Then  he  would  swing  his  shep- 
herd's crook,  and  run  and  leap  and  at  last 
sink  exhausted  near  the  gorse,  which  was 
never  really  out  of  blossom.  He  need  not 
despair,  he  thought,  if  such  a  lovely  smell 
could  come  from  such  a  prickly,  ugly  bush 
as  that.  It  was  so  lovely  to  keep  finding  out 
that  everywhere  there  was  a  stand-by  when 
any  horrid  thing  happened.  The  nettle,  he 
found,  had  always  had  the  dock  as  a  little 
hospital  nurse  to  heal  the  wounds  of  those 
whose  grasp  was  not  tight  enough  to  make 
real  friends  with  the  tetchy  old  nettle.  It 
was  all  a  matter  of  nerves,  after  all,  and  the 
nettle's  sting  went  the  moment  it  was  prop- 
erly handled.  Tobias  took  every  chance  to 
hold  it  very  firmly,  as  he  felt  sorry  that  it 
could  not  make  people  see  that  it  was  their 
fault  why  it  stung.  Timidity  irritated  it  and 
strength  soothed  it.  Its  friendliness,  as  To- 


58  LOVE-ACRE 

bias  knew,  was  great,  or  it  could  not  take 
the  poisons  out  of  the  blood,  as  it  did  when 
made  into  soup  or  eaten  instead  of  cabbage. 
He  heard  an  old  man  tell  his  father  once 
that  a  month  of  nettle-tea  had  taken  the 
tantrums  out  of  his  great-aunt  and  made 
her  comfortable  and  kindly.  It  was  such  a 
joy  to  Tobias  to  find  that  everything  every- 
where was  really  as  anxious  as  Leah,  the 
servant  at  home,  to  be  useful  and  helpful, 
and  he  began  to  wonder  if  even  the  sheep 
would  mind  being  eaten  if  they  understood 
all  the  great  secrets.  Perhaps  they  did  un- 
derstand, and  that  was  why  some  people 
thought  they  did  not  know  or  suffer  much 
when  they  were  huddled  into  the  slaughter- 
houses. Tobias  could  never  sleep  properly 
or  sing  at  home  when  he  knew  just  where 
and  when  these  dreadful  things  happened. 
Now,  as  a  shepherd,  he  wondered  if  it  might 
be  some  sort  of  joy  to  give  up  one's  life, 
and  as  he  wondered  he  came  closer  to  his 
flock.  He  gave  them  all  names  and  loved 


THE    SHEPHERD  59 

each  sheep  or  lamb  for  its  various  looks 
and  individual  ways.  It  was  astonishing 
how  different  they  were,  and  how  some  of 
them  had  eyes  which  looked  like  blind  eyes, 
and  so  unable  to  see  a  snare  and  escape 
from  it. 

Tobias  found  out  more  than  cats  and  dogs 
and  even  birds  seem  to  know  about  the  won- 
ders of  trailing  plants  and  brilliant  berries. 
They  seemed  all  to  have  some  sort  of  heal- 
ing in  them  for  the  strange  disorders  in  the 
world.  Some  evidently  thought  themselves 
more  beautiful  than  the  rest,  like  the  night- 
shade, and  were  proud  when  men  called 
them  Bella  Donna,  as  if  they  were  great 
dames  and  fine  ladies.  Tobias  seemed  to 
hear  their  secrets  only  in  the  twilight.  As 
for  the  honeysuckle  and  the  foxglove,  he 
never  quite  understood  some  of  the  things 
which  were  breathed  out  in  a  midsummer 
dawn  by  them.  He  became  as  still  as  they 
appeared  when  the  tiny  hints  of  their  up- 
ward growth  flooded  him.  It  seemed  some- 


60  LOVE-ACRE 

times  that  only  something  white,  like  the 
gulls,  could  understand.  Tobias  watched, 
one  early  morning,  a  big  gull  poised  over  a 
dip  in  the  brushwood  where  the  honey- 
suckle crept  in  and  out  among  the  old  tree 
stumps  and  boulders.  The  bird  hid  its  legs 
as  it  hovered  and  listened,  as  if  wings  alone 
were  any  use  in  the  understanding  of  some 
things.  When  the  gull  had  flown  away  with 
a  sound  like  happy  laughter,  Tobias  entered 
the  little  hollow  over  which  it  had  hung,  and 
there  he  found  the  greenest  moss  he  had  ever 
seen.  As  he  bent  and  felt  it  with  his  lips, 
because  of  its  softness,  the  cool  ferns  touched 
his  cheek,  teaching  him  the  music  of  their 
message  to  the  whole  world,  hidden,  as  the 
best  of  them  were,  in  the  undergrowth  and 
often  in  darkness.  When  Tobias  came  to 
examine  the  moss  more  closely,  he  found 
it  was  really  like  a  tiny  fern  itself,  and  also 
like  the  leaf  of  a  tree,  a  Christmas  tree.  The 
whisper  he  heard  among  the  ferns  was  that 
in  one  likeness  are  we  all  made,  and  it  is  in 


THE    SHEPHERD  61 

us  all  to  be  a  shade  and  a  coolness  and  a 
great  peace.  Tobias  looked  up  suddenly, 
for  it  was  as  if  someone  very  tender  and 
strong  had  said  this  close  to  his  side,  but  no 
one  seemed  near,  so  he  lay  down  to  watch 
the  red  dawn,  which  is  a  voice  and  a  signal 
to  any  careful  shepherd.  It  crept  over  the 
sea  and  the  earth  and  made  everything 
lovely  and  passionate. 

The  dewdrops  in  the  early  morning  had 
a  special  meaning  for  Tobias.  They  made 
the  gorse  bushes  into  fairy  castles  and  spider 
webs  into  spangled  nets.  The  dewdrops 
might  be  mistaken  for  little  children's  tears, 
yet  he  remembered  that  Fan-Fan  said  his 
mother  dealt  in  them  for  fairies'  weddings. 
He  saw  whole  worlds  sometimes  in  the  big- 
gest drops,  and  drank  them  when  his  heart 
ached  with  a  sweet  sort  of  pain.  There  were 
some  days  when  he  longed  to  leap  like  a 
grasshopper  or  saunter  like  a  caterpillar,  or 
drowse  as  a  bee  seemed  to  do  when  made 
giddy  with  the  sweetness  of  a  wild  rose. 


62  LOVE-ACRE 

He  looked  at  his  hands  and  his  feet  in  de- 
spair and  shook  his  curly  head  with  rage. 
To  swim  and  to  shout  and  to  run  was  all 
that  was  left  for  him  when  all  his  brothers 
and  sisters  in  the  great  silence  could  do  so 
much  more.  He  wanted  to  wave  to  and  fro 
like  the  trees  when  the  jealous  wind  tossed 
them  which  way  it  would.  He  longed  to  be 
part  of  the  sea  and  to  be  kissed  by  the 
moon  and  burnt  by  the  sun  and  at  night  to 
be  a  looking-glass  for  the  stars.  What  se- 
crets they  could  tell,  and  the  flat  big  face 
of  the  sea  must  have  guessed  them  all  or 
how  could  it  bear  its  own  deep  sorrow  and 
only  show  it  by  sighing  and  heaving  in  its 
odd  way?  Tobias  would  not  have  really 
loved  the  sea  had  he  not  watched  it  trying 
to  cuddle  up  to  the  sands  and  run  back- 
ward and  forward  in  a  playful  way,  as  if 
half  ashamed  at  its  great  longing  for  a  com- 
panion in  its  silence.  He  knew  it  hungered, 
as  he  did,  for  something  out  of  reach,  and 


THE    SHEPHERD  63 

his  ache  became  one  with  that  of  the  big 
oceans  of  the  world. 

He  felt  he  loved  and  was  loved  by  all 
about  him.  Even  the  sheep  became  sweet 
and  holy  to  him,  at  last,  and  the  jerky  wag- 
ging of  a  lamb's  tail  as  it  sucked  made  him 
understand  a  mother's  heart,  as  he  was  be- 
ginning to  realize  his  own.  For  in  Tobias 
Trewidden  was  hidden,  from  the  day  he  was 
born,  a  threefold  nature.  Fate,  by  the  aid 
of  the  world  of  men,  the  Silence  of  Nature 
and  the  cruelty  of  Love,  would  make  of  the 
man,  the  woman  and  the  child  entombed  in 
his  little  sensitive  body  just  what  Destiny 
needed  to  accomplish  its  purpose.  To  ful- 
fil this  purpose  he  had  to  learn  the  great 
secrets.  He  found,  for  instance,  that  the 
lichen  on  the  gray  Cornish  walls  had  as  great 
an  end  to  serve  in  Nature's  nurseries  as  her 
big  oak  trees  or  her  brilliant  rhododendrons 
in  her  halls  and  drawing-rooms.  An  artist, 
coming  into  the  field  one  day  to  paint,  told 
Tobias  that  he  got  more  beautiful  thoughts 


64  LOVE-ACRE 

from  the  little,  shiny  green  plants  notched 
into  the  walls  with  their  gray  bloom  than 
from  mountain  peaks  or  blue  lakes  in  Italy. 
Then  again  he  realized  how  dead  leaves 
made  manure,  and  manure,  in  the  Odds  and 
Ends  dust-heap  of  Nature,  was  transformed 
into  new  shapes.  So  manure  was  as  beauti- 
ful and  valuable  as  dog-roses  and  daffodils, 
which  in  this  curious  way  got  much  of  their 
life  and  beauty  through  decay  and  death. 
The  flowers,  to  Tobias,  were  little  evange- 
lists of  the  whole  of  Nature.  The  daisies, 
with  their  patient  eyes,  the  buttercups,  with 
their  satin  skins,  the  primroses,  with  the 
hoard  of  the  winter's  dreams  turned  into 
wrinkled  leaves  and  untroubled  yellow  faces, 
the  snowdrops  in  their  pursed  and  lowly 
purity,  who  acted  as  heralds  of  the  spring, 
all  spoke  to  Tobias  as  to  a  little  half-brother 
they  were  just  learning  to  love.  The  daffo- 
dils made  him  dance  as  no  other  flower  could. 
'He  tiptoed  to  their  hidden  rapture;  they 
came  in  such  armies  to  disperse  the  last  signs 


THE    SHEPHERD  65 

of  winter,  and  the  wind  joined  so  merrily 
in  their  joy  and  self-assurance.  As  for  the 
violets,  especially  the  white  ones,  Tobias  was 
a  shepherd  to  them,  asleep  or  awake,  nearly 
all  the  year  round.  For  in  Cornwall  sheep- 
rearing  and  guarding  cattle  is  not  such  ar- 
duous work  as  in  some  parts  of  England. 
The  manuring  and  hoeing  and  gathering  of 
several  acres  of  violets,  which  were  fenced 
off  in  the  sheltered  corners  of  the  big  fields 
where  the  sheep  grazed,  is  almost  as  great 
a  task  as  the  ordinary  work  of  a  shepherd. 
Sometimes  the  farmer  who  owned  the  land 
and  the  sheep  lent  a  hand  himself,  but  To- 
bias was  glad  when  he  had  gone  and  he  was 
once  more  alone  with  his  work  and  his 
dreams.  He  began  to  feel  that  he  had  al- 
ways lived  in  a  world  of  soft  sounds  and 
sweet  smells.  Everywhere  there  was  a  new 
glad  wonder,  and  nothing  was  more  of  a 
surprise  than  when  one  morning  Leah  came 
to  see  him  in  order  to  bring  him  a  cake  and 
a  white  smock,  for  it  was  his  twentieth  birth- 


66  LOVE-ACRE 

day,  she  said.  He  had  grown  into  a  man 
without  realizing  it.  His  birthday  was  near 
St.  Patrick's  Day,  said  Leah,  and  that  meant 
that  the  winter  was  nearly  over.  Not  that 
Tobias  really  disliked  the  winter.  As  a  child 
he  had  feared  cold  and  darkness,  but  as  a 
shepherd  he  found  that  cold  was  really  heat 
turned  inside  out,  in  order  that  those  trying 
to  escape  the  snow  might  escape  their  ene- 
mies. He  also  realized  that  cold  and  frost 
gave  many  things  rest  which  the  warmth 
kept  awake.  As  for  the  darkness,  he  found 
it  made  a  sort  of  light  within  itself,  as  the 
great  storms  made  a  hush  when  the  winds 
were  the  wildest,  and  in  this  hush  Nature's 
maddest  children  could  cradle  themselves 
into  sleep.  It  was  a  little  like  sleep  and  per- 
haps like  death,  a  way  of  re-making  and  re- 
touching things  not  yet  arrived  at  their  ful- 
ness or  their  joy. 

Tobias  had  often  seen  death  as  a  shep- 
herd, and  he  had  grown  at  last  not  to  be 
afraid  of  it.  At  first  its  coldness  and  stiff- 


THE    SHEPHERD  67 

ness  frightened  him,  but  as  ice  and  snow  are 
hard  and  cold  and  many  other  lovely  things 
stiff  and  still,  he  grew  to  understand  Na- 
ture's deeper  sleep,  and  even  his  own  heart 
at  times  was  cold  and  strange.  He  felt  at 
last  that  the  body  was  only  a  mask,  and  the 
spirit  within  just  like  the  lamp  in  a  light- 
house, the  only  thing  of  any  use  in  a  storm 
or  in  darkness.  He  grew  to  understand  that 
the  eyes  are  little  peep-holes  of  this  strange 
light  inside,  and  he  guessed  that  rats,  sheep, 
cats,  and  horses  see  things  only  according  to 
their  light  within,  and  so  the  eyes  are  shaped 
differently,  just  to  let  the  radiance  be  mani- 
fested according  to  the  spirit.  He  wished 
he  could  see  as  they  all  saw.  He  envied  the 
lizard  and,  above  all,  the  eagle  he  had  heard 
about  but  had  never  seen.  He  had  always 
wished  he  could  be  a  Golden  Eagle,  and  so 
able  to  kiss  the  sun  and  rest  on  the  moon 
and  fly  from  mountain  peak  to  mountain 
peak  to  see  the  cities  as  specks  in  the  dis- 
tance. The  dreams  of  an  eagle  must  be  like 


68  LOVE-ACRE 

the  secrets  in  fire  and  in  lightning.  Even 
as  a  little  boy  he  had  guessed  some  of  the 
secrets  of  the  flames.  His  stepmother  had 
laughed  at  him  when  he  shouted  with  glee 
at  the  blue  and  golden  glory  in  the  drift- 
wood burning  in  the  great  open  fireplace  in 
the  winter.  He  had  told  Fan-Fan  and 
Trailing  Topsy  what  he  saw  in  the  flames, 
and  Fan-Fan  said  that  the  secrets  of  the 
great  deep  were  beyond  knowing  and  that 
even  birds  perhaps  dare  not  tell  them.  To- 
bias wondered  what  he  meant,  but  Jack 
Richards  told  him  afterwards  that  he  had 
heard  lots  of  funny  things  had  been  seen  in 
the  flames  of  driftwood  from  old  ships. 
As  a  shepherd,  Tobias  began  to  understand 
the  secrets.  Some  of  the  great  inner  life 
of  the  oceans  had  passed  into  the  drift- 
wood, and  so  water  was  turned  into  flame  at 
last  and  gave  away,  even  to  stupid  mortals, 
some  of  the  secrets  of  the  deep.  His  father 
said  it  was  only  the  brine  and  other  things 
that  gave  the  blue  and  yellow  color.  It  had 


THE    SHEPHERD  69 

always,  however,  seemed  a  miracle  to  Tobias, 
and  made  him  understand  why  Jonah  could 
live  in  a  whale's  belly  or  Lazarus  walk  out 
of  his  grave-clothes  as  if  he  had  only  been 
asleep.  The  pale  purple  and  blue  of  those 
driftwood  fires  with  the  encircling  forks  of 
flaming  gold  had  remained  as  lasting  joys 
in  the  heart  of  Tobias,  and  the  trees  and  the 
sea  and  the  silence  gave  him  the  clue  to  it  all. 
When  he  became  a  shepherd,  he  saw  that  the 
life  of  an  oak  began  as  an  acorn  and,  after 
many  adventures  in  the  great  oceans,  ended 
in  flame.  Tobias  after  that  always  envied 
the  trees,  as  being  nearer  to  the  life  of  a 
Golden  Eagle  than  even  a  gull.  The 
thoughts  of  a  mole  must  be  wonderful  too, 
in  a  different  way  to  the  trees,  thought 
Tobias,  and  he  wished  he  could  see  without 
eyes  deep  into  the  great  secrets  of  the  soil, 
as  a  mole  did. 

Tobias  noticed  that  it  was  difficult  for 
some  animals  to  make  friends  with  each 
other  and  that  some  who  seemed  most  alike 


70  LOVE-ACRE 

were  really  the  furthest  apart.  One  day  he 
saw  a  funny  meeting.  A  farmer  must  have 
lost  his  ferret.  It  ran  up  to  Tobias  and  did 
not  seem  afraid  of  him  at  all,  so  he  fed  it 
with  some  bread  and  a  little  milk  from  his 
can.  Then  it  scurried  away.  In  the  morn- 
ing Tobias  was  wakened  by  a  queer  sound 
and  this  was  so  unusual  that  it  broke  into 
his  sleep.  The  ferret  and  a  squirrel  had  met 
and  the  sounds  were  so  funny  that  he 
laughed  till  he  nearly  cried.  Then  suddenly 
he  began  to  see  that  it  was  the  sad  and 
terrible  meeting  of  one  so  like  the  other  that 
they  were  enemies  because  of  it.  It  gave  him 
a  feeling  of  dreadful  loneliness  until  his 
eyes  lighted  on  a  group  of  jackdaws  perched 
on  the  backs  of  a  herd  of  his  sheep  and 
busily  employed  in  plucking  out  the  wool 
for  their  nests.  With  sleek  heads,  bent  side- 
ways between  each  dive  for  the  wool,  they 
reminded  him  of  the  minister  at  home  eating 
cake  at  the  Sunday  school  tea.  It  took  away 
all  his  loneliness  because  he  was  so  glad  he 


THE    SHEPHERD  71 

was  not  there,  but  just  a  shepherd  boy  who 
knew  a  few  things  he  was  sure  neither  his 
father  nor  his  stepmother  had  come  across 
even  in  books  or  in  chapel.  He  remembered, 
for  instance,  how  his  stepmother  hated  rain 
and  he  had  grown  to  love  it.  It  was  this 
voice  of  the  wet  which,  breaking  in  suddenly 
on  the  silence,  made  him  aware  of  other  se- 
crets Mother  Nature  kept  to  herself  when 
betraying  others.  The  patter  on  his  sailor's 
oiled  coat,  yellow  as  a  cowslip,  with  its  black 
collar  like  a  ram's  ears,  made  him  understand 
the  clouds  as  never  before.  Not  only  were 
they  moving  castles  in  the  air,  but  some  of 
them  were  glorious  heavenly  yachts  with 
fantastic  sails.  He  would  lie  at  full  length 
sometimes,  and  let  the  anger  of  a  thunder 
shower  vent  itself  upon  him,  and  as  the 
lightning  laughed  and  the  thunder  roared  he 
slept  as  a  child  sleeps  in  his  mother's  arms 
when  too  many  fireworks  have  tired  him  with 
noise  and  color  and  swiftness.  When  he 
awoke  he  always  found  the  birds  singing 


72  LOVE-ACRE 

and  Nature's  gentle  sigh  of  relief  scarcely 
breaking  the  silence  after  the  storm. 

How  well  he  remembered  when  Fan-Fan 
had  brought  him  the  message  from  the  Big 
Moth  and  he  had  thought  how  terrible  a 
thing  it  was  to  be  a  shepherd.  And  now  he 
smiled  as  he  thought  of  it.  "It  would  be  like 
being  afraid  of  being  a  Golden  Eagle,"  he 
murmured,  "or  a  Lover,  for  that  must  be  the 
greatest  of  all."  As  a  flock  of  crows  cawed 
over  his  head  they  said,  "Mad,  Mad,  Mad." 
Tobias,  as  he  fell  asleep,  as  was  his  way 
when  the  messages  reached  him,  murmured, 
"Glad,  Glad,  Glad,"  but  the  Moon,  the 
Stars,  and  the  Stillness  which  precedes  the 
Storm  kept  their  Secrets. 


PART  III 
THE  LOVER 


THE  LOVER 

IT  was  St.  Patrick's  Day.  The  shrill 
wind  of  the  night  had  at  last  worn  itself 
out.  There  was  a  faint  sob  left,  like  that  of 
a  child  as  it  nestles  to  its  mother's  breast 
with  the  tears  wet  on  its  cheeks.  The  wind 
following  the  downpour  had  been  so  strong 
that  Nature's  tears  had  been  dried  up  in  her 
fierce  mood.  To-day,  however,  the  hail  and 
the  rain  and  the  tempest  had  all  fled  before 
her  smiles  and  laughter,  and  the  sun  had  his 
own  will  with  the  Earth.  A  flood  of  glory 
made  her  restless  with  her  joy  and  the  birds, 
her  little  feathered  handmaidens,  carolled 
out  the  deep  hopes  of  the  spring.  Nature's 
voice,  vibrant  with  passionate  desire,  and 
now  and  then  shrill  with  foreboding, 
echoed  plaintively  through  the  cries  of  the 
four-footed  beasts  Tobias  was  shepherding 

75 


76  LOVE-ACRE 

till  the  day  of  sacrifice  came.  The  demure 
primroses,  with  their  yellow  eyes  wide  open 
as  if  in  wonder,  had  been  tossed  in  the  gale 
as  far  as  their  short  stalks  would  allow.  The 
recklessness  into  which  the  wind  had  be- 
trayed them  had  flung  many  of  the  daffodils 
into  an  ecstasy  ending  in  death.  The  sea 
was  one  dazzling  breast,  gently  swelling 
toward  the  warmth  of  the  sun,  and  intoxi- 
cated into  a  rippling  smile  by  the  gentle 
touch  of  the  west  wind.  The  blue  in  the 
sky  and  the  blue  in  the  sea  vied  with  one 
another,  as  if  to  eclipse  the  greenness  of  the 
earth  even  on  St.  Patrick's  Day.  The 
storms  before  and  the  rains  after  seemed  of 
no  account  on  this  day  "lent,"  as  the  Cornish 
say,  as  a  very  image  of  midsummer. 

Tobias  Trewidden,  the  shepherd,  coming 
out  of  his  hut  at  dawn,  felt,  as  he  said  to 
himself,  like  a  catapult.  He  wanted  to 
spring  outward  and  inward  at  once,  to 
kneel  and  to  soar.  Between  the  ache  of  joy 
in  his  heart  and  the  strength  of  the  muscles 


THE   LOVER  77 

in  his  body  he  stood  motionless,  listening  to 
the  outburst  around  him.  How  he  envied 
the  gulls  and  the  rooks  and  more  than  all 
the  blackbirds.  They,  at  least,  could  cry  out 
or  warble  or  sing  both  their  prayer  and  their 
desires.  The  blackbird's  note  was  so  strange- 
ly like  the  joy  and  the  ache  in  the  heart  of 
Tobias.  A  sudden  sting  and  sweetness  had 
pulsed  through  his  flesh,  and  a  desire,  strong 
as  death  over  the  living,  had  taken  hold  of 
his  soul.  He  had  slept  dreamlessly  and  only 
now,  awake  in  the  perfect  dawn,  did  he  feel 
as  in  a  dream.  His  cruel  and  solitary  child- 
hood, his  strange  and  lonely  youth  as  a 
shepherd  of  flocks  and  flowers,  had  suddenly 
merged  into  a  young  manhood  which  had 
made  his  laugh  deeper,  his  muscles  more 
tense,  and  his  inner  sense  of  a  coming  joy  a 
reckless  peace.  This  jubilant  madness  of 
the  spring  on  St.  Patrick's  Day  gave  a  new 
light  to  his  eyes  and  a  new  meaning  to  his 
life.  Leah,  the  maid-of-all  work  at  home, 
had  years  ago  had  an  Irishman  for  a  hus- 


78  LOVE-ACRE 

band,  and  she  had  told  Tobias  on  one  St. 
Patrick's  Day,  when  she  had  pinned  a  bit  of 
shamrock  in  his  school  cap  for  luck,  that  be- 
cause of  his  strange  fancies  she  was  sure 
God  had  put  the  soul  of  an  Irishman  into  the 
body  of  an  English  boy.  Perhaps  it  was 
true.  Tobias  sat  on  the  grass  clasping  his 
knees  as  he  thought  about  it  all.  From 
what  Leah  had  told  him,  St.  Patrick  was 
not  a  bit  like  his  father  would  be,  even  if, 
later,  God  turned  him  into  a  saint.  Perhaps 
on  a  day  like  this,  if  St.  Patrick  was  as  full 
of  glee  as  Leah's  husband  had  said,  he  could 
come  back  to  earth  and  recognize  the  peo- 
ple who  were  a  bit  like  him.  Tobias 
felt  almost  giddy  with  the  feelings  surging 
in  him.  He  had  found  out  long  ago  that  his 
mother  was  his  guardian  angel.  His  whole 
childhood  was  one  lovely  dream  of  her,  his 
sweet  mother  Mary,  who  had  died  when  he 
was  born  and  said  "puir  mitherless  bairn" 
before  going.  Leah,  who  told  him  this,  and 
had  said  that  as  his  mother  was  Scotch  and 


THE    LOVER  79 

St.  Patrick  Irish  it  was  almost  a  certainty 
that  she  would  over-persuade  St.  Patrick  to 
be  the  other  guardian  angel,  as  no  woman 
alone,  even  if  she  was  an  angel,  could  rightly 
lead  a  boy  in  the  way  he  ought  to  go.  He 
thought  of  them  both,  his  mother  and  St. 
Patrick,  and  wondered  what  they  would  like 
him  to  do  after  sending  him  something  so 
very  big  and  wonderful.  For  to-day  was  not 
only  St.  Patrick's  Day.  It  was  Tobias  Tre- 
widden's  birthday  and  love  had  come  to  him 
on  the  eve  of  it.  It  surely  must  be  love  he 
thought,  or  all  the  world  would  not  seem  so 
different.  It  was  glorious  even  to  take  into 
his  lungs  the  fresh  morning  air  and  breathe 
it  out  again  to  the  sky.  There  seemed  no 
past  and  no  future,  not  even  a  to-morrow, 
only  the  sun  and  to-day.  Tobias  prayed  as 
most  people  talk  and  some  sing.  He  prayed 
as  he  breathed,  almost  unconsciously,  and  al- 
ways familiarly,  as  he  would  have  spoken  to 
his  mother  had  she  lived,  and  as  he  had 
spoken  to  Fan-Fan  and  Trailing  Topsy  and 


80  LOVE-ACRE 

the  other  fantastic  fairies  of  his  childhood. 
After  he  had  seen  to  his  flocks  and  his  flow- 
ers he  jumped  into  a  little  hollow  where  the 
moss  and  lichen  grew  among  the  gray  old 
stones.  He  came  out  with  some  "shamrock" 
a  real  Irishman  would  have  rejected,  but 
Tobias  prayed  as  he  fastened  it  in  his  cap. 
It  was  the  prayer  of  one  in  what  Leah  called 
"deliricums,"  which  was  the  equivalent  of 
the  desire  Tobias  expressed  when  he  wanted 
to  be  a  catapult;  "Send  her  quick  and  then 
stop  the  sun  from  waning  till  to-morrow." 
So  certain  was  he  that  his  prayer  would  be 
answered  that  by  eleven  he  had  whirled 
through  his  daily  work,  whistling  and  sing- 
ing so  loudly  all  the  time  that  the  birds 
seemed  overborne  by  the  human  lover  in 
their  midst.  As  he  noticed  them  preening 
their  feathers,  in  between  their  bursts  of 
song,  Tobias  realized  that  he  also  must  make 
himself  orderly  in  dress.  A  shepherd  is  one 
thing,  a  lover  quite  another.  A  shepherd 
can  afford  to  be  careless  in  his  dress,  may 


THE    LOVER  81 

even  leave  his  curls  astray  as  the  wind  or 
sleep  have  tossed  them,  but  a  lover!  He 
smiled,  and  with  three  gymnastic  feats  he 
had  stripped  and  flung  himself  into  the  river. 
The  river  probably  realized,  as  the  birds  and 
the  sky  and  the  sun  understood  too,  how 
clean,  not  only  the  heart  but  the  body  of  a 
lover  must  be.  It  was  Sunday,  the  day  for 
"changes,"  as  they  called  his  underlinen  at 
home.  He  had  one  white  smock  in  the  hut 
which  he  had  never  worn.  Leah  had  made 
it  for  him  in  the  evenings.  His  stepmother 
had  laughed  at  it  because  on  it  Leah  had 
worked  little  shepherd's  crooks.  Now  it 
seemed  a  part  of  this  vibrant  day,  and  no 
more  ridiculous  than  when  on  Easter  Sun- 
day he  had  gone  with  his  school  teacher  to 
church  and  seen  boys  singing  in  what  he  at 
first  thought  wrere  their  shirts.  Leah  had 
told  him  that  while  she  was  making  the 
smock  she  had  been  thinking  of  her  husband 
when  he  first  wooed  her,  and  she  said  that 
there  was  no  knowing  if  he  could  not  come 


82  LOVE-ACRE 

back  some  day  to  a  "saucy"  soul  like  Tobias 
and  teach  him  all  the  wonders  wooing  a  maid 
meant. 

As  Tobias  put  on  his  smock,  a  curious 
shyness  crept  over  him.  He  had  suddenly 
recalled  his  Love's  hands.  Perhaps  it  was 
because  she  was  a  dressmaker  that  they  were 
so  unlike  Leah's  hands,  as  unlike  in  fact  as 
a  crow  was  from  a  gull.  He  leaned  against 
his  hut  and  looked  at  his  own  fingers.  Was 
it  possible  that  there  should  be  all  that  dif- 
ference between  the  male  and  the  female 
hand?  He  trembled  at  the  thought  of  those 
slender  fingers.  The  mere  vision  of  her 
wrist  and  her  ankles  sent  a  message  through 
him  like  the  wild  anemones  did  as  they  hid 
their  gentleness  under  the  stubbly  gorse- 
bushes  on  the  wild  moor.  It  was  always  in 
April  they  were  the  most  beautiful,  just 
when  the  fiercest  gales  blew.  What  a  won- 
derful thing,  thought  Tobias,  it  must  be  to 
be  either  a  woman  or  a  flower,  and  yet  he 
would  not  be  a  woman  for  anything,  just 


THE    LOVER  83 

because  he  would  know  all  the  great  secrets, 
as  his  mother  did,  and  not  have  to  hunt  them 
out  and  half  lose  them  as  he  caught  them.  It 
was  the  sport  and  the  madness  and  the  swing 
of  the  chase  in  everything  which  held  him, 
and  here  was  this  lovely  body  and  soul  of 
his  sweetheart  advancing  towards  him,  and 
yet  retreating,  even  in  his  thoughts  about 
her,  just  when  he  imagined  he  had  caught 
her  moods  and  understood  her.  He  thought 
of  her  slender  hands  and  arms,  and  the 
prison  of  her  love  was  a  lure  to  his  soul.  He 
dwelt  on  her  mouth  and  the  posies  of  the 
world  were  as  weeds  in  comparison.  She 
had  talked  of  her  little  necklace,  won  at  a 
village  treat,  and  the  Holy  Scriptures  had 
no  greater  wisdom  in  his  ears.  Her  voice 
had  a  lilt  in  it  which  no  woe  that  could  befall 
him  would  withstand,  and  the  arc  of  her 
budding  breast  held  more  hope  for  Tobias 
than  the  rainbow  after  any  flood.  There 
seemed  to  be  a  silence,  even  among  the 
birds,  as  the  knowledge  flooded  him  that 


84  LOVE-ACRE 

these  thoughts  of  his  about  her  were  only 
the  signals  of  the  nearness  and  the  distance 
which  one  day  would  melt  into  a  great  be- 
longing. For  to  Tobias  love  was  just  a 
great  belonging,  an  intimate  and  eternal 
mating.  Something  had  befallen  him  which 
made  no  thought  and  no  action  wholly  his 
own.  It  belonged  to  her  hopes  and  to  her 
purity,  as  his  heart  and  his  body  were  hers 
for  the  mere  accepting.  He  had  only  seen 
her  twice,  when  a  kind  fate  had  sent  her  for 
violets  for  a  big  wedding  in  the  village,  and 
again  for  more  in  the  case  of  a  child's  sud- 
den death.  They  had  scarcely  spoken,  and 
yet  Tobias  knew  he  had  been  re-born,  for 
now  the  woman's  point  of  view  must  always 
mingle  writh  his  and  alter  it  to  a  different 
outcome.  Her  will  was  his  law.  He 
touched  the  lambs  with  almost  a  woman's 
tenderness,  and  approached  their  patient 
mothers  with  a  feeling  of  awe.  The  rams  he 
bustled  and  hurried  about  a  bit,  as  a  little 
unworthy  of  all  they  produced.  Perhaps, 


THE    LOVER  85 

had  Tobias  guessed  love  was  on  its  way  to 
him,  he  would  have  run  from  it  as  he  some- 
times hid  his  face  when  lightning  and  thun- 
der made  him  forget  all  but  their  beauty. 
But  it  was  too  late  to  flee  now,  and  his  heart 
leapt  at  the  thought  of  his  bondage.  She 
had  promised  to  meet  him  at  the  wall  of  the 
wood,  where  the  blue-bells  would  soon  be  in 
a  shimmer  of  color,  and  where,  even  now, 
the  primroses  had  longer  stalks  and  larger 
faces  than  anywhere  else  he  knew.  The 
songs  of  the  birds  were  hopes  in  themselves. 
He  would  lead  her  to  the  pond,  where  later 
the  water-lilies  grew,  and  try  to  tell  her  that 
his  prayers  and  his  songs  and  his  laughter 
went  from  his  heart  to  hers  and  made  a  new 
music  for  them  both.  His  spirit  rippled  into 
peace  at  the  thought  of  her  and  his  veins 
seemed  filled  with  clear  spring  water  that 
had  once  been  ice  and  snow.  And  yet,  when 
he  thought  of  her  asleep,  as  he  did  before  he 
undressed,  a  glowing  ache  just  to  kiss  her 
hair  went  through  him.  He  felt  sure  she 


86  LOVE-ACRE 

plaited  it,  and  he  made  up  his  mind  that  one 
day  he  would  venture  into  a  shop  and  buy 
some  pale  purple  ribbon  to  tie  up  the  ends. 
She  was  never  out  of  his  thoughts.  He  en- 
folded her  as  the  mists  enfold  the  earth  in 
the  early  days  and  nights  of  spring.  She 
possessed  him  as  the  grass  grasps  the  earth. 
How  long  it  seemed  to  wait  for  her!  Sup- 
pose she  had  got  hurt  ?  Suppose  she  were  to 
die  before  he  saw  her  again?  He  went  sud- 
denly cold  at  the  bare  thought.  Suppose  she 
could  never  love  him?  His  lips,  curving  to 
the  thought  of  her  beauty,  smiled  almost  be- 
fore such  a  thought  was  born.  Of  course 
she  would  love  him  or  he  would  die.  He 
almost  felt  dead  as  he  imagined  such  a 
blankness.  If  she  did  not  love  him  now 
neither  did  his  mother  in  Love- Acre.  That 
settled  the  whole  matter  and  he  pushed  up 
his  curls  in  a  gesture  of  security. 

Suddenly  she  was  there,  smiling  at  him, 
and  waiting  for  him  to  speak.  Tobias  in- 
stinctively pinched  himself,  in  order,  first  of 


THE    LOVER  87 

all,  to  see  if  he  was  alive,  and  then  to  enable 
him  to  keep  so,  for  a  sudden  f aintness  came 
over  him.  It  was,  however,  only  for  a  mo- 
ment. Erect  and  strong,  the  tall  figure  of 
the  man  faced  his  hopes  made  visible.  He 
clasped  his  hands  and  she  heard  the  gesture, 
for  at  the  first  sight  of  his  glowing  face  she 
had  lowered  her  head.  Their  eyes  spoke  and 
a  slow  smile  broke  over  her  face  and  showed 
her  beautiful  teeth.  His  eyes  fell  on  them 
and  he  grew  serious. 

"They'm  more  wonderful  than  the  white 
horses  by  the  lighthouse  rocks,"  he  said 
simply. 

Her  smile  vanished.  She  looked  toward 
the  sea  and  then  at  him. 

"How  funny!"  she  said. 

Tobias  stepped  closer  to  her  and  whis- 
pered : 

"Heaven  itself  seems  nonsensical  before 
this.  Even  flowers  be  only  signs." 

She  laughed. 


88  LOVE-ACRE 

"You  are  splendid,  Tobias.  No  other 
boys  talk  like  that.  They  only  fuss  round." 

"By  the  side  of  you,"  said  Tobias,  "every- 
thing seems  gray,  even  the  sun."  He  looked 
up  unblinkingly.  "There's  cowslips  over 
there  on  the  bank.  Come."  He  walked 
swiftly  and  she  followed.  They  sat  and 
watched  the  flock  of  sheep  without  speak- 
ing. The  girl  took  off  her  white  cotton 
gloves.  Tobias  clapped  his  hands. 

"I  knew  there  was  something  wanting," 
he  said.  "To  hide  they  be  a  sort  of  mur- 
der." 

She  caught  his  meaning  from  the  tender 
glow  of  his  face,  and  laid  one  of  her  hands 
on  both  of  his,  clasped  as  they  were. 

"They  please  you  as  you  please  me,"  she 
said.  "I'm  some  glad."  The  color  fled 
from  the  eager  face  of  Tobias. 

"Please  me!"  he  echoed  passionately. 
"They'm  just  a  world  somehow.  They 
touch  me  in  my  sleep  and  set  me  praying 
when  I'm  awake.  They'm  long  and  cool 


THE    LOVER  89 

like  wings,  in  a  manner  of  speaking,  and 
yet  they  could  hold  a  shepherd's  heart  too 
tight  for  it  ever  to  stray.  It's  a  great  be- 
wilderment to  me,"  he  ended  simply,  "that 
flesh  and  blood  alone  should  be  so  wonder- 
some." 

The  beautiful  slender  girl  suddenly  faced 
him. 

"Tobias,"  she  said  gently,  "your  curls 
maze  me  a  bit  like  that,  so  we'm  both  of  one 
mind." 

"I've  always  leaned  to  lank  hair  in  men," 
said  Tobias,  "but  it's  curls  forever  if  you've 
leanings  that  way.  Before  they've  always 

minded  me  of  the  sheep's  wool,  but  now 

He  did  not  go  on.  She  pulled  away  the 
hand  he  held  and  suddenly  reached  up  and 
clasped  both  of  hers  round  his  head.  Her 
white  arms  touched  his  face  and  his  whole 
body  quivered  in  response  to  her  touch. 

"They'm  like  baby's  faces  to  me,"  she  said, 
"and  I  want  to  cuddle  them." 
'What   more   she   would  have   said   was 


90  LOVE-ACRE 

spoiled  in  the  uttering.  Tobias  leaped  to  his 
feet,  and  the  girl,  alarmed  at  her  own  audac- 
ity, stood  too.  Her  fair  head  was  on  his 
breast  before  she  could  open  her  lips  to 
speak,  his  strong  young  hands  touched  her 
golden  hair  first  and  then  gripped  her  shoul- 
ders, and  with  one  quick  movement  he  had 
lifted  her  into  and  cradled  her  in  his  arms. 
She  never  spoke  or  moved,  and  he  just  ran 
with  his  slender  little  love  toward  the  water- 
lily  pond  muttering,  "Nothin'  matters  but 
this,  nothin'  ever  can  matter  any  more." 

The  delicate  curves  of  her  body  spoke  to 
him,  as  all  Nature  spoke  to  him,  of  delicious- 
ness  and  fragrance,  and  his  joy  made  her 
weight  as  that  of  a  new-born  lamb  in  his 
arms.  He  must  cherish  her  life  as  he  did 
those  of  the  lambs,  he  thought,  but  he  must 
save  her — as,  alas!  he  was  powerless  to  do 
with  his  flocks, — from  disaster  and  death. 
He  galloped  at  last  in  the  mere  delight  of 
moving  and  the  girl's  eyes  opened  softly  and 
shut  again  in  a  tremulous  ecstasy.  He  in- 


THE    LOVER  91 

haled  her  breath  as  she  tried  to  speak  and  it 
had  the  scent  of  primroses  in  it.  Her  eye- 
lashes rested  on  her  white  skin,  like  the 
dainty  fringe  edging  a  blue  veined  curtain 
which  covered  the  way  to  a  sanctuary.  The 
body  of  Tobias  changed,  in  that  swift  jour- 
ney, into  a  meeting  place  for  gods.  He 
loved  beyond  himself,  and  flung  a  challenge 
to  Fate  as  he  cried  in  his  soul,  "She'm  more 
than  bread  and  water  to  me  and  even  death 
be  of  no  account  after  this." 

The  friendly  trees,  as  he  laid  his  love  down 
by  the  water-lily  pond,  seemed  to  make  a 
cloister  round  the  resting-place  of  these  mor- 
tals who,  like  them,  were  at  last  escaping 
from  a  winter's  lovelessness. 

"Tobias,"  she  said,  "how  wonderful  strong 
your  arms  are.  You'm  a  man  worth  while. 
I  do  dearly  love  you." 

Tobias  was  very  grave. 

"It's  overpowering  me,"  he  said. 

"What?" 

She  spoke  so  sweetly  and  gravely,  he  re- 


92  LOVE-ACRE 

mained  quite  still  looking  down  upon  her. 
Her  pale-purple  cotton  dress,  with  the 
glimpse  of  the  white  petticoat  underneath, 
was  all  he  noticed  at  the  moment,  except  that 
in  carrying  her  he  had  crushed  some  dark 
wall-flowers  she  was  wearing. 

"Life,"  answered  Tobias  softly  and  bent 
over  her  to  take  out  the  dead  flowers  from 
her  dress.  "The  great  secrets  seem  very  near 
and  I'm  dazed  and  joyful  to  once'st."  He 
looked  at  the  dead  flowers  in  his  hands. 
"They  be  overcome  too,  and  no  wonder,  but 
they'm  dead  and  no  use  to  you  now.  I'm 
alive,  Loveday,  and  your  Boy.  See!"  He 
knelt  over  her  on  one  knee  as  she  lay  on  the 
bank  of  the  pond.  A  shiver  like  the  wind 
makes  when  the  sun  kisses  the  daffodils 
passed  over  her. 

"It's  all  we  was  born  for,"  said  Tobias. 

Her  upper  lip  trembled  as  she  looked  into 
his  face.  She  could  not  move,  and  he  could 
hardly  speak,  but  in  a  deep  whisper  he  end- 
ed: "It's  a  fire  and  ice  together  and  a  great 


THE    LOVER  93 

hush  and  gallop  in  one.  It's  a  frenzy  and 
yet  the  peace  of  the  falling  snow  is  in  it. 
I've  never  been  near  it  before.  It's  like  a 
voice  and  a  light  in  one." 

"It  makes  us  feel  gay  and  happy,  doesn't 
it?"  she  said.  "You  have  such  a  way  with 
you  too.  I  feel  I  shall  never  know  what's 
coming  next,  and  it's  just  lovely,  like  a  sur- 
prise packet  or  a  letter  you've  had  no  notion 
was  on  its  way." 

"Perhaps  it  comes  all  different  to  girls," 
said  Tobias.  "I  can't  reckon  with  it  at  all. 
It's  like  a  devastation,  in  a  manner  of  speak- 
ing, and  yet  a  grand  awakening.  I  feel  I've 
been  mostly  asleep  always,  and  have  just 
woke  up." 

"You'd  help  to  waken  the  dead  now,  To- 
bias Boy."  A  little  happy  laugh  escaped 
her.  "You'm  more  like  a  gypsy  than  any- 
thing else,  but  I'd  not  have  you  different. 
You'm  so  turbulent  and  masterful." 

"I'm  full  of  faults,"  said  Tobias. 

"And    I'm    crotchetty,"    said    Loveday. 


94  LOVE-ACRE 

"I'm  full  of  moods  and  fancies.  You'll  hate 
me  one  day  if  I  show  you  my  grainey  ways." 

Tobias  clasped  his  hands  behind  his  head. 

"It  would  be  just  the  same  if  you'd  wrin- 
kles or  warts  or  sunburn,"  he  said,  "I'd  miss 
them  if  they  was  wanting.  Clouds  and  rain 
would  never  make  me  turn  against  the  sun." 

"Have  you  never  fancied  a  girl,  Tobias?" 
she  whispered. 

He  did  not  answer  for  a  moment.  Her 
throat  was  so  long  and  white,  he  was  think- 
ing that  the  swans  in  the  squire's  lake  were 
unshapely  in  comparison.  It  was  the  echo 
of  her  question  which  at  last  reached  him. 
He  had  waited  long  enough  to  make  her  ex- 
claim: "You  rascal,  you've  kissed  many 
maidens  and  just  forgotten."  He  knew  she 
could  not  be  serious,  but  it  gave  him  joy  to 
answer,  though  he  began  to  wish  he  had 
thousands  of  remembered  kisses  to  press  on 
her  lips  as  a  testament  if  that  was  what  girls 
liked.  He  felt  a  little  shamefaced  as  he  an- 
swered. 


THE    LOVER  95 

"I've  never  cast  a  thought  toward  a 
maid,"  he  said.  "Fairies  and  the  silent 
things  have  been  so  near  always." 

She  looked  at  him  incredulously. 

"Fairies,"  she  echoed,  "why  they'm  all 
make-believes.  Surely  you've  had  fun?" 
Her  face  was  one  expectant  smile.  "Larks, 
I  mean,  nothing  to  matter,  of  course." 

Tobias  smiled. 

"Only  with  Leah,"  he  said.  "We've 
played  hard  at  pillow  fights  and  rounders 
and  such." 

She  threw  back  her  lovely  head  and 
thought  for  a  moment  before  answering 
him,  "Then  you're  by  yourself.  There 
never  was  anyone  just  like  you,  I  expect. 
So  you  were  never  tempted?" 

"I  never  cast  a  thought  before.  Do  girls, 
before  they  mark  their  lad  for  good  and 
all?" 

She  laughed.  "All  girls  be  drawn  to  lads 
and  all  of  us  loves  to  be  fussed  over,  but 
you  have  a  way  with  you  different  to  the 


96  LOVE-ACRE 

rest  and  make  me  forget  they  others."  She 
looked  at  him  under  her  eyes.  "There  was 
just  one  I  leaned  to,  but  you've  made  him 
like  brass  before  gold,  somehow." 

Her  simple  statements  had  eased  the  ten- 
sion of  his  mood.  He  sat  close  by  her  and 
clasped  his  hands  round  his  knees. 

"We'll  live  on  a  hill-side,"  he  said,  "and 
be  happier  than  the  swallows.  We'll  lie 
under  the  stars  and  sing  to  the  moon  and 
then  sleep  till  the  dawn." 

She  laughed  merrily. 

"That's  many  baking  and  washing  days 
off,"  she  said. 

"We'll  always  be  thinking  of  it  to  make 
its  wonder  understandable,"  he  said.  "Every 
day  and  night  will  bring  it  nearer." 

She  edged  closer  to  him. 

"Tobias,  isn't  it  well  I'm  a  dressmaker  be- 
cause I  can  make  my  wedding  clothes,  free 
of  expense." 

"Wedding  clothes?"  he  echoed.    "I  never 


THE    LOVER  97 

thought  of  they.  Why !  We're  wedded  al- 
ready, you  know,  if  we  love  one  another." 

She  nestled  up  to  him. 

"Only  in  a  manner  of  speaking,"  she  said. 
"But  girls  like  all  the  fuss,  you  know,  and 
the  ring  to  show  the  other  girls  and — oh !  all 
sorts!" 

Her  head  was  on  one  side,  and  a  lurking 
tremble  of  vanity  was  in  the  happy  twitch- 
ing of  her  mouth. 

Tobias  closed  in  on  her  mood. 

"And  ear-rings  and  beautiful  shoes  with 
buckles,  like  they  have  in  the  pictures  of  Cin- 
derella, and  silk  stockings,  and  laces  and 
brooches  and  best  kid  gloves,"  he  murmured. 

"Yes,  yes,"  she  panted  eagerly.  "Oh! 
how  they'll  all  envy  me.  And  you'll  always 
love  me,  Tobias,  and  be  proud  of  me?" 

For  answer  he  leaned  over  and  his  curly 
head  lay  on  her  breast.  He  was  too  near 
the  eternal  mysteries  to  speak,  and  she  ruf- 
fled up  his  curls  about  his  neck  as  he  held 
her  close.  It  seemed  to  him  that  he  might 


98  LOVE-ACRE 

easily  die  of  the  surging  glory  of  the  peace 
within  him.  At  last  he  spoke. 

"Even  a  mother  in  Love- Acre  might  be 
envious  of  this  'ere." 

"Love- Acre?"  she  asked.  "Wherever  is 
that?  I've  never  heard  of  it." 

Tobias  suddenly  raised  his  head.  Every- 
thing in  him  was  surging  to  one  desire  and 
in  the  fulfilment  of  it  he  answered  her  ques- 
tion. He  gently  folded  her  in  his  arms  and 
looked  a  moment  at  the  soft  parted  lips. 
His  manhood  and  her  womanhood  met  sud- 
denly and  passionately  on  them  and  the 
breath  of  love  swept  them  into  one.  A  fierce 
gust  of  wind  and  a  driving  hail  shower  were 
both  unheeded.  The  sun  had  come  again 
before  four  eyes  had  opened  upon  the  secrets 
two  mouths  had  revealed.  The  intimate 
sweetness  had  flung  them  into  a  world  where 
touch  alone  can  speak.  Tobias,  aching  with 
rapture,  laughed  the  lover's  low  laugh  of 
joy.  He  caught  her  long  white  hands  and 
kissed  them  so  madly  she  sobbed  and  crooned 


THE   LOVER  99 

as  a  child  does  when  it  is  pleased.  Then, 
emboldened  through  her  delicious  passivity 
and  her  tremulous  smiles,  he  held  back  her 
head  and  kissed  her  throat  and  chin,  and 
closed  her  eyes  with  his  lips  to  have  his  will 
with  her  eyelids.  The  fragrance  of  her  hair, 
as  he  sought  it  with  hands  and  mouth,  turned 
him  suddenly  lonely  and  sad  at  his  limita- 
tions. His  hands  were  only  the  ministering 
angels  for  his  whole  body  as  they  swept  over 
her  in  a  sort  of  prayer.  The  fierce  longing 
broke  at  last  into  bald  words. 

"Seemly  I  want  to  hurt  you  because  I  love 
you." 

"Hurt — hurt,  Tobias  lad,"  she  said 
breathlessly.  "It's  just  heaven." 

His  kisses  smote  her  like  hail  in  the  spring, 
and  she  knew  they  would  make  the  flowers 
of  her  summer.  Tobias  suddenly  pulled  off 
the  little  shoes. 

"But  for  they,  you  couldn't  stand  up- 
right," he  cried  as  he  covered  her  feet  with 
kisses.  At  last  he  lay  back  on  the  grass  by 


100  LOVE-ACRE 

her,  a  strange  light  in  his  eyes.  Some  inner 
knowledge  of  him  held  her.  She  whispered 
gently: 

"Tobias,  do  all  men  folks  love  their  women 
like  this?" 

"I  don't  know,"  he  said.  "I've  never 
asked.  I've  never  known  nothin,'  seemly, 
till  to-day.  You'm  just  everything  and  the 
close  meanin'  of  everythin'.  There'd  be  no 
world  for  me  now  without  you.  It's  just 
light  or  darkness,  and  no  betwixt  or  between 
for  ever  more." 

She  glanced  under  her  eyes  at  him. 

"A  woman  would  never  be  a  trailer  to 
you,  Tobias,"  she  said.  "A  man  mostly  leads 
and  let's  a  woman  drag  after." 

Tobias  pointed  to  the  setting  sun.  "It's 
not  that  as  you'd  ever  be,"  he  said,  "but  just 
the  risin'  one  as  gladdens  the  world." 

"Girls  say  men  be  allus  saucy  and  mazy 
afore  marriage  and  gluttons  and  drivers 
after,"  said  Loveday.  "Perhaps  you'd  have 


THE   LOVER  101 

no  taste  even  for  kisses,  once  you  got  me 
tight." 

Tobias  looked  at  her  almost  calmly. 

"To  bed  and  board  with  thee,  sweetheart, 
would  surely  be  a  daily  surprise.  I'd  never 
overtake  you  in  meanings,  I'm  thinking,  for 
every  minute  you'm  almost  a  new  girl  in 
wonder,  and  how  could  that  stop  if  you  was 
my  wife  and  we'd  little  ones?" 

She  reddened,  and  he  drew  her  to  him,  a 
subtle  tenderness  in  his  face.  "You  see,  it's 
with  minding  sheep  and  lambs  that  makes 
me  so  f  orthy,"  he  said.  "It's  all  so  grand  to 
tend  and  minister  to  them,  and  I'm  one  with 
them  all  in  that  too.  It's  what  belonging 
means,  just  everything.  I'd  sooner  have  a 
little  lad  of  my  own  than  be  a  lord." 

"And  I'd  sooner  bear  your  children,  Boy, 
than  be  the  squire's  lady." 

She  spoke  shyly  out  of  his  mood  and  out 
of  her  own  revelation  of  herself. 

He  held  her  for  a  moment  in  his  arms. 

"We'll  love  everything,"  he  said,  "and  be 


102  LOVE-ACRE 

wonderful  happy.  Here's  a  ring,"  he  went 
on.  "The  hours  crawled  so  this  morning 
that  I  picked  daisies  and  made  this."  He 
drew  something  from  his  smock  pocket  and 
opened  a  tiny  match  box. 

Her  eyes  fell. 

"Daisies,"  she  said  sadly. 

"Just  to  begin  with,"  he  said,  "and  thread- 
ed as  close  as  a  mat."  He  slipped  it  on  her 
wedding  finger.  "Just  fits.  See  how  I 

knew." 

She  tried  to  please  him  but  her  voice  be- 
trayed her. 

"Isn't  it  an  ill  omen  to  change  rings,  even 
a  make-believe  one?" 

He  snapped  his  fingers. 

"Loveday,  my  jewel  girl,  I'd  risk  all  of 
they  things.  It's  a  parcel  of  fool's  palaver, 
all  the  talk  of  spells  and  such  like.  Our 
kisses  could  drive  any  disaster  away,  I'm 
thinking." 

"I  love  diamonds,"  she  said,  "and  rubies 
next." 


THE    LOVER  103 

"They  don't  grow  on  eighteen  shillings  a 
week,"  he  said  gaily. 

"Ohl"  said  Loveday,  "I  thought  you  had 
much  more.  We  can't  furnish  on  that." 

"Then  we  must  live  on  the  grass  in  a 
hut,"  he  said  smiling. 

Her  lips  puckered. 

"No  girls  ever  begin  like  that.  They'd 
all  scorn  us.  I  like  them  to  envy  me." 

He  twisted  the  daisy  ring  round  on  her 
finger. 

"Who  be  they?"  he  said.  "It's  all  in  our 
hearts,  and  furniture  is  no  real  stand-by. 
Outsiders  don't  count  either." 

"Father  and  mother  wouldn't  hear  of  it," 
she  said  slowly.  "I've  a  bottom  drawer  to 
fill  with  things  for  a  home,  and  presents  be  a 
big  part  of  a  wedding.  Those  and  the 
cake." 

"You  shall  have  them,"  said  Tobias. 
"Even  birds  deck  themselves  out  for  their 
pairing.  I'll  get  thee  all  thee  dost  need  in 
time.  You  wait  and  see." 


104  LOVE-ACRE 

"Then  you  will  have  to  leave  the  shepherd- 
ing," she  said.  "It's  a  lean  trade  for  profit." 

"Leave  the  shepherding,"  he  cried.  "I 
should  feel  like  a  man  without  a  skin.  It's 
part  and  parcel  now  of  all  my  make-up." 

A  hard  look  flitted  over  her  face. 

"I  thought  you  loved  me  better  than  all 
the  world?"  she  queried. 

"Of  men  and  women,"  he  said  gravely. 
"But  the  life  of  a  shepherd  is  scarcely  a 
man's  own,  either  to  leave  or  to  keep." 

She  laughed  merrily. 

"Oh!  Tobias!  what  a  funny  thing  to  say! 
It  sounds  like  the  proverbs." 

"It  is  true,"  said  Tobias. 

"If  you  love  me  you'll  give  it  up  and  be 
a  head  grocer,"  she  said.  "And  from  that  a 
wholesale  merchant.  I'd  be-  some  proud  of 
you  then." 

A  foreboding  held  him,  and  perhaps  the 
thought  of  Mr.  Carbines,  the  local  village 
dealer,  awed  him. 


THE    LOVER  105 

"I'd  have  to  grow  portly  and  smile  to 
oblige,"  said  Tobias. 

The  sun  was  kissing  the  sea  good-night, 
and  Loveday  leaped  to  her  feet. 

"It  must  be  quite  late,"  she  said,  "and 
there  will  be  a  fuss  at  home.  Oh!  Tobias! 
It's  been  so  nice  and  I  do  love  you  so. 
When  shall  I  see  you  again?  Fancy!  It 
seems  quite  horrid  to  go." 

"To-night,"  said  Tobias  eagerly,  "and 
even  that  seems  too  far  off  to  reckon  with. 
I  can  get  away  an  hour  to  run  in  and  kiss 
you  again  and  then  back  to  the  flocks.  I 
can  leap  like  a  goat  and  so  need  waste  no 
time." 

She  held  out  her  hands  to  him  coquettishly. 

"Some  day  you'll  have  no  flocks,"  she 
cried  joyfully,  "only  me." 

He  knelt  on  the  grass  and  clasped  his 
arms  round  her  waist. 

"Only  you,"  he  murmured,  "and  then  you 
too  will  have  a  shepherd." 

"Oh!  I  feel  so  gay,  Tobias,  and  so  wholly 


106  LOVE-ACRE 

yours,"  she  rippled.  "It's  just  fine."  She 
drew  his  head  close  against  her  body  and  ran 
her  fingers  through  his  curls.  "Never  let 
the  barber  damage  them,  my  Shepherd  Boy, 
and" —  her  eyes  contracted  slightly — "never 
let  another  woman  touch  them." 

"Not  till  I  reach  Love- Acre,"  said  Tobias. 

"You're  always  thinking  of  that  outland- 
ish spot,"  said  Loveday.  "Who  lives  there?" 

"My  mother,"  answered  Tobias  simply. 

"Your  mother,"  she  repeated  absentlyj. 
"How  queer!  And  who  else?" 

"Lovers,  I  imagine,"  said  Tobias,  "but  I 
know  very  little  about  it  except  in  dreams." 

"Dreams,"  she  echoed.  "Then  it's  no  real 
place  at  all?  It's  like  the  fairies  and  all  that 
tosh." 

Tobias  did  not  answer.  How  could  he? 
What  was  reality?  What  were  dreams? 

"I  don't  exactly  know  in  the  face  of  your 
kisses,"  he  said  at  last.  "They  be  the  only 
sure  things  for  us  both,  it  seems.  And  yet 
Love- Acre  and  the  fairies  be  quite  real  to 


THE    LOVER  107 

me.  Love- Acre  began  by  being  a  fanciful 
place  to  me  as  a  youngster,  but  as  a  Shep- 
herd it's  become  more  like  a  home.  Perhaps 
our  little  ones  will  come  from  there,  who 
can  tell?" 

Loveday  gazed  at  him  with  open  eyes  and 
mouth. 

"Tobias,  if  you  wasn't  a  darling  you'd  be 
a  sawney,"  she  said,  "but  you  makes  non- 
sense sound  like  sense.  That's  a  sillier  story 
than  the  parsley  beds  and  the  big  stork." 

"I've  never  heard  of  they,"  said  Tobias, 
"but  I  know  my  mother  is  in  Love- Acre  by 
all  the  signs." 

"What  signs?"  she  asked. 

Could  he  tell  her  those  innermost  secrets 
of  his,  those  long  talks  with  Fan-Fan  and 
Trailing  Topsy  and  the  greater  things  whis- 
pered to  him  in  the  Silence?  And  yet  she 
was  his  and  he  was  hers  and  the  barriers  were 
all  down  as  far  as  he  could  tell.  What  held 
him  silent?  Only  a  curious  twist  about  her 
mouth  which  was  half  a  smile  and  half  a 


108  LOVE-ACRE 

sneer.  It  was,  he  felt,  as  if  she  had  held  out 
a  little  cup  for  him  to  fill,  and  having  a 
large  pitcher  of  clear  water  in  his  hand,  it 
would  grieve  her  that  the  cup  could  not  hold 
or  her  thirst  require  what  he  had  brought 
from  his  well  for  her. 

He  did  not  answer.  He  kissed  her  mouth 
into  sweetness  and  her  eyes  into  gladness. 
Then  he  walked  with  her  to  the  end  of  the 
field  and  in  the  awed  mood  which  makes 
every  parting  between  lovers  the  shadow  of 
death,  he  retraced  his  steps  toward  his  hut. 
He  was  surprised  to  find  a  man  there. 

"What  ho?"  cried  the  stranger. 

Tobias  greeted  him  curtly.  If  some  casual 
acquaintance  had  met  Moses  coming  from 
the  Mount,  just  at  the  moment  when  he  had 
been  obliged  to  put  a  veil  upon  his  face,  for 
fear  his  inner  joy  should  slay  the  outsider, 
he  would  probably  have  answered  as  sharply 
as  Tobias. 

"I'd  best  drive  they  sheep  to  the  slaughter 
house  to-night,"  said  the  stranger. 


THE    LOVER  109 

"It's  the  Sabbath,"  said  Tobias. 

"All  the  quieter  on  the  roads,"  said  the 
butcher;  "they'll  have  time  to  calm  down.  It 
makes  the  flesh  better  if  they'm  not  too  flus- 
tered." 

"Not  to-night,"  said  Tobias.  "It's  un- 
thinkable." 

The  butcher  looked  at  the  shepherd  curi- 
ously. Then  he  grinned. 

"Had  a  drop,  shepherd?"  he  hazarded. 

Tobias  looked  full  at  the  slaughterer.  To 
the  butcher  his  eyes  seemed  glazed. 

"Yes,"  said  Tobias.  It  was  the  easiest 
thing  to  say  and  not  a  lie,  except  to  the 
butcher.  Dewdrops  could  intoxicate  as 
much  as  beer,  if  the  drinker  was  a  white 
violet  under  April  leaves.  And  if  the 
"drop"  was  the  bliss  of  his  love's  lips,  why 
worry  to  deny  anything  to  the  grinning  man 
before  him? 

"Thought  so,"  said  the  stranger.  "Beast- 
ly work  shepherding?" 

"What    of   butchering?"    asked    Tobias. 


110  LOVE-ACRE 

"How  you  do  it  unless  you  be  gone  in  liquor 
is  always  a  wonderment  to  me." 

"Butchering  be  not  slow  a  bit,"  said  the 
man.  "It's  full  of  dare-devilry  excitement, 
and  as  good  sport  as  hunting  if  the  beasts  be 
frightened  or  gamesome." 

"It's  devil's  pastime,"  said  Tobias  and 
the  butcher  laughed. 

He  handed  Tobias  a  paper.  On  it  was 
written:  "Twenty  sheep  and  ten  lambs 
marked  S."  and  signed  by  his  master. 

"I'll  bring  them  to  you  at  dawn,"  said 
Tobias. 

"Why  dawn?  Why  not  now?"  asked  the 
butcher. 

"I've  a  fancy,"  said  the  shepherd.  "Give 
them  another  night  in  the  open." 

"Look!"  said  the  man,  "I'm  taking  my 
girl  to  Poltreath  Fair  to-morrow,  and  I  want 
the  job  over  and  a  wash  and  a  change  by 
twelve.  Time  they're  slaughtered  and 
skinned  and  dressed,  it'll  take  till  eleven." 

Tobias  was  very  pale. 


THE   LOVER  111 

"It's  just  murder,"  he  muttered. 

"Don't  take  it  neat  next  time,  shepherd," 
laughed  the  butcher.  "Your  head  be  too 
young  to  stand  it." 

Tobias  looked  full  at  the  other  man. 

"That's  how  I  always  take  it,"  he  said, 
"neat,  and  it  burns  like  fire." 

The  butcher  filled  his  pipe,  while  Tobias 
went  towards  his  flock  and  called  the  twenty 
by  name  and  picked  out  ten  lambs.  He  was 
very  white  and  the  butcher  grew  grave  at 
last. 

"You've  got  a  chill  over  that  drink  of 
yours,"  he  said.  "Your  eyes  are  feverish 
and  you're  as  white  as  death.  Help  me  drive 
them  to  the  field  with  the  dog.  It'll  warm 
you  up,"  he  added  kindly. 

Tobias  drove  the  little  chosen  herd  to  the 
road  and  fled  back  to  his  hut. 

"How  can  I  touch  her  to-night  with  that 
sin  on  my  hands?"  he  cried.  "They  trust  me 
and  love  me.  I've  sent  them  to  their  death, 
and  yet  what  can  I  do?  They're  as  believ- 


112  LOVE-ACRE 

ing  as  she  is,  and  as  innocent."  He  hung  his 
head.  "It's  a  dreadful  thing  to  be  a  shep- 
herd, as  she  says,  and  a  glorious  thing  to  be  a 
lover." 

Out  of  her  presence  the  common  events  in 
his  work  bewildered  and  depressed  him.  He 
felt  only  half  alive  without  her.  He  could 
neither  eat  nor  sleep  till  he  had  seen  her 
again.  It  was  almost  as  if  he  had  given  her 
over  to  destruction,  so  great  was  the  strain 
on  his  soul  as  he  sent  his  four-footed  friends 
to  the  slaughter.  Even  the  sight  and  sound 
and  touch  of  Loveday,  in  the  few  hurried 
moments  he  saw  her,  only  partially  soothed 
him.  She  noticed  how  pale  he  was,  but  he 
would  not  depress  her,  so  only  said  that  he 
always  slept  all  tiredness  away.  He  nearly 
added  that  he  was  sure  he  got  a  new  life  in 
his  sleep,  in  Love- Acre,  but  he  just  stopped 
in  time. 

Loveday  was  going  to  chapel  with  a  girl 
friend  who  was  to  be  married  at  Easter. 

"Her  man  be  a  bitter  rind  to  swallow," 


THE    LOVER  113 

said  Loveday,  "and  mine  be  the  pick  of  the 
world." 

Tobias  went  slowly  back  to  his  hut  by  the 
light  of  the  stars.  He  fell  asleep  pondering, 
first  on  love  and  then  on  death,  and  in  his 
dreams  they  became  one. 


PAET   IV 
THE    ALIEN 


THE   ALIEN 

MATTHEW  TREWIDDEN  always  rose  at  five 
in  the  morning,  as  he  declared  that  "wet  or 
dry,  sick  or  well,  I've  got  to  work  to  fill 
young  mouths."  When  night  came  he  made 
a  rule  of  having  bread  and  milk  at  half  past 
eight,  and  then  went  straight  to  bed.  This 
had  the  same  effect  on  his  family  circle  that 
children  generally  have  on  their  parents 
when  their  heads  are  safely  on  their  pillows 
and  there  are  a  few  hours  free  from  noise. 
The  neighbors  knew  that  nine  o'clock  or 
thereabouts  was  the  best  time  to  catch  Mrs. 
Trewidden  for  a  friendly  gossip,  and  no 
man,  hoping  to  supersede  Leah's  Irish  hus- 
band, ventured  into  the  wooing  lists  till  after 
that  time.  It  grew  into  a  custom  that  neigh- 
bors dropped  in  while  Mrs.  Trewidden  and 
Leah  did  the  family  mending.  Many  lives 
117 


118  LOVE-ACRE 

were  spiritually  lost  and  few  saved  at  these 
times.  The  great  subject  at  the  moment  was 
Tobias  and  his  sudden  declaration  that  he 
could  no  longer  be  a  shepherd.  He  had  been 
home  a  week  already,  and  his  father  was 
very  angry  that  he  had  given  up  one  job  be- 
fore finding  another.  Leah's  companion, 
Phillipa  Trewhella,  who  had  lately  married 
a  German  servant  belonging  to  a  county 
family  near,  and  Wilmot  Harry,  the  district 
nurse,  had  dropped  in  rather  late.  Leah  was 
ironing  and  Mrs.  Trewidden  knitting. 

"I  can't  sit  and  do  nothing,"  said  Mrs. 
Trewidden.  "My  fingers  itch  to  sew  or  knit. 
Now  Leah  there  can  often  doze  over  the  fire, 
just  twiddling  her  thumbs,  but  I  can't.  It's 
having  a  family,  I  suppose.  It  makes  one 
feel  it  a  sin  to  be  idle  a  minute." 

"Having  a  family  modifies  natures,"  ob- 
served Wilmot  Harry,  "but  there's  restless 
mothers  same  as  there's  peaceful  maidens." 

"I  wonder  what  sort  of  wife  and  mother 
Loveday  Cocking  will  make?"  Phillipa 


THE   ALIEN  119 

Trewhella  spoke  thoughtfully.  "She'm  in 
some  rush  of  pride  over  Tobias.  To  hear 
her  talk  there's  been  but  one  shapely  lad 
born  in  this  world  and  she've  got  him." 

Leah  held  the  iron  she  had  just  taken 
from  the  stove  close  to  her  cheek. 

"She's  not  far  wrong,"  she  said.  "HeVe 
sprung  up  like  a  tree  and  he's  full  of  a  fine 
sap  and  joy  fulness." 

"Leah  allus  leans  to  Tobias,"  said  Mrs. 
Trewidden.  "My  children  be  toad-stumps 
by  the  side  of  he." 

Leah  bent  over  her  ironing.  She  suddenly 
turned  to  her  friend. 

"You  know  why,  don't  you,  Phillipa 
Jane?" 

"Not  exactly,"  was  the  answer. 

"I've  always  a  dream  child  in  my  head," 
said  Leah.  "It's  an  Irish  one,  of  course,  but 
I  feel  it  is  like  Tobias.  He  often  says 
things  I've  made  up  in  my  heart  that  my 
little  one,  if  I'd  had  one,  would  have  said  to 
me.  If  Tobias  went  wrong,  in  a  manner  of 


120  LOVE-ACRE 

speaking,  I  feel  I  should  grasp  at  once  why 
he  was  led  into  misdoing." 

"He's  more  likely  to  go  mad,"  said  his 
stepmother.  "He's  never  been  exactly  all 
his  life  and  I  believe  he  fairly  tries  to  be 
unlike  my  boys.  He's  fantastical  and  unbe- 
knowns." 

"He  can't  help  it,"  said  Leah.    "He  sees." 

"Sees  what?"  asked  Wilmot. 

"Pixies,"  said  Leah,  "and  such." 

"Bosh!"  said  Mrs.  Trewidden. 

"Them  as  hears  and  sees  be  in  a  fair  way 
to  take  the  short  cut  to  the  asylum,  so  I 
understand.  I've  heard  neighbors  say  that 
Tobias  have  got  an  evil  spirit.  I  know  one 
boy  as  he've  ill-whisht  with  them  strange 
eyes  of  his.  They  fair  gives  you  the  creeps 
at  times,"  ended  Wilmot. 

"Evil  spirits  indeed!"  cried  Leah,  as  she 
tossed  her  sprinkled  clothes  from  the  wash 
basket  on  to  the  table.  "Look  at  him!  The 
dear !  What  comfort  would  evil  spirits  have 
inside  a  man  like  that?  I  reckon  they'd  soon 


THE   ALIEN  121 

have  a  fit  of  homesickness  and  go  back  to 
the  devil  with  a  dreary  account  of  their  trip. 
As  for  being  ill- whisht!  Them  eyes  of  his 
makes  folk  confused,  I  grant  you,  but  most- 
ly over  their  own  misfits  in  thoughts  and 
deeds.  He'm  as  tender  as  a  woman  over 
misfortune." 

"He'm  a  saint,"  according  to  you,"  said 
Mrs.  Trewidden. 

"No,"  said  Leah  gently.  "He'm  a  forth- 
right human  creature  and  neither  saint  nor 
devil.  He  do  never  lie  nor  bear  a  grudge." 

Wilmot  laughed. 

"Maybe  that's  witchcraft  in  itself,"  she 
said.  "Daily  life  needs  grease,  like  cart- 
wheels, and  a  little  deception  be  no  worse 
than  a  bit  of  gossip  at  times.  It  makes 
things  quiet  and  easy." 

"What  of  his  temper?"  sneered  Mrs.  Tre- 
widden. "As  a  kid  he  was  some  masterful. 
Even  with  his  father  he  was  furious  at  times 
and  he  bit  his  father's  leg  once  and  flew  at 
my  throat." 


122  LOVE-ACRE 

Leah's  face  darkened  and  the  other  women 
gasped. 

"Be  fair,"  said  Leah,  "for  he'm  not  here 
to  explain.  His  father  was  seemly  thrashing 
all  the  life  from  him  when  he  bit  as  rats  in  a 
trap  bite,  and  you  missis,  begging  your  par- 
don of  course,  told  him  his  mother  had 
spawned  a  devil's  imp  in  her  own  likeness. 
He've  allus  loved  his  mother  though  he  never 
saw  her." 

Leah  hung  a  flannel  shirt  on  the  horse 
before  the  fire. 

"He  tormented  me  into  it  with  his  cold- 
ness and  his  g'eat  wide  open  saucer  eyes," 
said  Mrs.  Trewidden. 

"Thanks  be,"  said  Leah,  "that  his  pluck 
have  saved  him  from  a  winding  sheet.  He 
was  never  spared  no  rod  that  could  flay,  I 
can  testify,  having  often  gone  between  it 
and  him  and  had  black  wheals  on  my  flesh 
in  his  place.  My  child  should  never  have 
been  caned.  The  wonder  is  Tobias  is  not  a 
devil." 


THE   ALIEN  123 

"Your  child  be  a  dream  one,  remember, 
Leah  Martin,"  said  Mrs.  Trewidden.  "Real 
children  wants  hiding  same  as  dogs  and 
horses." 

"Even  that's  a  frustration  mostly,"  said 
Leah.  "Sugar  and  coaxin'  be  cheaper  and 
more  profitable." 

"Loveday  will  take  a  deal  of  doing  for," 
said  Phillipa.  "Men  wanders  in  some  ways, 
once  matrimony  be  a  fixture." 

Mrs.  Trewidden  laughed. 

"Have  you  found  that  out  already?" 
asked  Wilmot.  "Lor!  it's  early  days  to 
know  that  you've  tied  a  knot  with  your 
mouth  you  can't  ever  undo  with  your  teeth." 

"Six  months  can  seem  a  life-time  if  you're 
full  of  either  happiness  or  misery,"  said 
Phillipa.  "I'm  all  right.  Bill  be  first  class 
if  I  get  his  meals  to  time  and  if  I  brush  his 
Sunday  suit  when  he's  ready  to  put  it  on,  and 
if  I  keep  the  house-place  clean  and  fitty." 

"Where  is  he  now?"  asked  Mrs.  Trewid- 
den. 


124  LOVE-ACRE 

"At  the  'Lamb  and  Flag,'  "  said  Phillipa. 
"Him  and  Albert  Tremayne  have  a  bet  on 
over  something  and  Bill  keeps  laughing  to 
himself  over  it  and  won't  tell  me,  till  it  be 
lost  or  won.  It's  over  a  woman  I  can  tell, 
though  it's  generally  over  horses.  A  lot  of 
the  chaps  are  going  to  see  it  through,  so  I 
shan't  hurry  home.  I  met  Loveday,  by  the 
bye,  as  I  came  in.  Tobias,  she  says,  had 
asked  her  to  pop  in  here  and  wait  for  him. 
Him  and  Albert  seemed  to  be  quite  pals.  I 
met  them  talking  just  before." 

"Goodness,"  said  Wilmot,  "that's  queer. 
I  always  thought  Bert, was  a  bit  soft  on 
Loveday  himself." 

"He's  never  spoke  out,  I  believe,"  said 
Mrs.  Trewidden.  "He's  a  cautious  fellow, 
is  Albert,  and  a  bit  saving.  A  wife  be  a 
consideration  to  men  of  his  make  and  not  to 
be  undertaken  without  the  certainty  of  a 
nest-egg  from  the  family." 

"Perhaps  he'll  only  fancy  a  woman  when 
it's  too  late,"  said  Phillipa.  "Bill  never  got 


THE   ALIEN  125 

really  took  up  with  me  till  Jack  Sandow 
came  round  sparking.  Then  he  seemed  to 
see  blood.  I  hates  scenes,"  she  ended  with 
a  nervous  laugh,  "and  so  I  just  married 
him." 

"Females  must  be  a  great  bewilderment 
to  males,"  said  Leah,  poking  her  finger 
through  a  big  hole  in  Mr.  Trewidden's  sock. 

"Matthew  says  most  of  us  wants  putting 
into  a  washing  tray  to  be  swimmed  till  we'm 
meek  and  lowly,"  observed  Mrs.  Trewidden. 

"Some  of  us  wants  seasoning,  like  wood," 
said  Phillipa.  "I  believe  I'm  that  sort.  But 
men  allus  be  in  a  fluster,  and  just  takes  us 
or  leaves  us  as  if  we  was  all  of  one  make." 

"There  be  as  much  variation  in  females  as 
in  flowers,  in  a  manner  of  speaking,"  said 
Leah. 

Wilmot  was  thinking  and  had  not  heard 
her  friend's  conclusion. 

"Some  women  wants  leaving  entirely  in 
peace,"  she  said.  "It's  enough  occupation 
for  me  at  any  rate  to  watch  the  pairing  and 


126  LOVE-ACRE 

the  doldrums  of  them  as  hungers  after  hap- 
piness, without  joining  in  at  all.  I  never 
feel  a  bit  slighted,  but  glad  I'm  cut  out  for 
an  old  maid." 

"Tobias  don't  seem  to  dread  no  doldrums," 
said  Leah.  "I  went  a  bit  faintey  when  I 
looked  upon  him  after  he'd  given  up  shep- 
herding. He  seemed  all  wrapped  in  glory, 
like  a  thing.  He  seems  to  look  on  Loveday 
as  more  than  mortal." 

"That's  a  sure  sign  she'll  never  be  a  help- 
mate," said  Mrs.  Trewidden.  "No  female 
can  be  expected  to  live  up  to  the  eager  hopes 
in  Tobias'  eyes.  He'm  daft  with  love  and 
longing,  and  that's  cured  easier  than  he 
thinks." 

The  three  women  laughed  loudly,  but 
Leah  sighed. 

"In  some  it's  never  cured,"  she  said. 

"Then  Death  must  surely  take  him,"  said 
Phillipa,  "or  the  mad-house.  Love  like  that 
be  a  frenzy  and  not  a  real  stand-by." 


THE    ALIEN  127 

"And  a  terrible  nuisance  in  family  life," 
said  Wilmot. 

"It  makes  me  shiver  even  while  I'm  iron- 
ing," said  Leah,  "just  to  think  of  him. 
He'm  so  reckless  and  yet  so  humble,  so  glow- 
ing and  yet  so  terrible  sombre  at  times.  A 
woman  will  play  on  him  like  the  wind  on  a 
harp." 

"Thanks  be  if  a  female  conquers  once  in  a 
way,"  said  Mrs.  Trewidden.  "Men  mostly 
gets  the  upper  hand,  and  though  women 
kicks  in  their  hearts  they  wear  the  appear- 
ance of  a  spaniel  on  the  chain." 

"Tobias  'ave  won  my  respect  more  than 
I  should  have  thought,"  said  Phillipa. 
"When  I  met  him  just  now  I  chaffed  him 
over  leaving  shepherding  before  he'd  fixed 
in  with  another  job.  'I  have  got  one,'  he 
made  answer,  'just  got  it  now  as  under- 
manager  at  Charles'  farm.'  He've  to  deliver 
produce,  keep  the  accounts  and  see  the  place 
is  at  all  times  secure.  He'm  young  for  the 
post." 


128  LOVE-ACRE 

Mrs.  Trewidden  laid  down  her  knitting 
and  put  the  kettle  on  the  fire. 

"Matthew  will  be  some  glad,"  she  said. 
"Tobias  be  so  strange  that  it  looked  as  if  no 
job  would  come  along.  That's  a  fine  one, 
sure  enough.  Did  he  mention  the  wages?" 

"Thirty  bob  a  week  and  over-time,"  said 
Phillipa.  "You  bet  he'll  do  plenty  of  over- 
time to  get  married  as  soon  as  possible. 
Lor!  who's  knocking?  Come  in,  do." 

It  was  Loveday.  She  stepped  into  the 
kitchen  and  peeped  about  as  she  advanced 
toward  Mrs.  Trewidden.  They  all  came 
forward,  looking  at  her  in  the  way  women 
eye  a  newly  engaged  friend  or  a  bride. 

"Tobias  bade  me  come,"  she  said.  "HeVe 
news,  I  believe." 

"We  won't  spoil  his  fun  by  telling  you," 
said  Wilmot.  "He'll  be  saucier  than  ever 
now  and  maybe  more  in  love  too,  if  that  be 
possible." 

Loveday  smiled  the  radiant  smile  of  the 


THE   ALIEN  129 

woman  who  alone  knows  what  the  outside 
world  cannot  even  guess. 

"Maybe,"  said  Loveday. 

"When's  the  wedding?"  asked  Phillipa. 

Loveday  glanced  out  of  the  window  as 
she  answered  carelessly.  "Nearly  a  year. 
We've  fixed  the  seventeenth  of  March." 

"Silly !"  said  Mrs.  Trewidden.  "The  gales 
be  worst  then,  and  the  weather  be  chill  for 
moving  furniture  and  settling  in." 

"It's  primrose  time,"  said  Loveday  and 

St.  "  She  blushed  as  Leah  turned  to 

gaze  at  her. 

"Blessed  children  of  love,"  murmured 
Leah,  "and  may  St.  Patrick  bless  you  both." 

"We  shall  be  able  to  save  by  then  and 
have  a  real  nice  villa,"  said  Loveday,  "and  a 
fine  house  warming  too." 

"Tobias  be  coming  on,  sure  enough,"  said 
Mrs.  Trewidden.  "Love  have  pushed  him 
forward  even  to  getting  a  new  suit  and  a 
bowler  hat." 

"He'll  be  a  bit  masterful,"  said  Phillipa. 


130  LOVE-ACRE 

"Look  out,  Loveday.  It  would  be  like  light- 
ing a  fire  with  a  big  chimney  draught  to 
make  him  real  angry  or  jealous.  One  of  you 
would  likely  die  of  it.  With  all  his  dreamy 
ways  he've  a  terrible  lot  of  spirit." 

Loveday  leaned  back  in  the  rocking-chair. 
It  suited  her  lithe  young  figure.  The  little 
feet  in  the  buckled  shoes  swung  to  and  fro. 

"I  can't  fancy  him  in  real  rages,"  said 
Loveday,  "and  as  for  jealousy!"  Memories 
of  her  shepherd  boy  flooded  her.  "I  wonder 
if  that  could  ever  be?" 

"Jealousy  only  comes  to  them  as  'ave  no 
real  hold,"  said  Leah,  "and  be  but  a  devil's 
hammer  to  break  a  chain  as  be  weak. 
Tobias  will  hold  till  death  and  believe  no 
evil." 

"Them  be  just  the  ones  as  be  always 
fooled,"  said  Mrs.  Trewidden.  "The  sur- 
prises fall  on  them  as  be  cock-sure.  What 
do  you  say,  Loveday?" 

"We'm  both  sure,"  she  answered  softly. 
"We'm  both  of  one  mind.  I  couldn't  give  a 


THE   ALIEN  181 

thought  to  another  while  he  be  as  he  is. 
Tobias  and  me  just  suits." 

The  door  opened  and  her  lover  came  in. 
His  glance  was  on  Loveday  almost  before 
he  had  shut  the  door.  He  saw  no  one  else 
and  put  his  hand  on  her  shoulder. 

"I've  got  a  job,"  he  said,  "a  real  good  one. 
Next  March  seems  hundreds  of  years  to 
wait.  A  real  life-time." 

Mrs.  Trewidden  laughed. 

"We'm  all  here,  Tobias,"  she  said. 

He  turned  from  Loveday. 

"Evening  all,"  he  said.  "The  sky  be  full 
of  promise  for  to-morrow." 

"Why,  it's  May-day  of  course,"  cried 
Phillipa  turning  to  Mrs.  Trewidden.  "We 
mustn't  forget  the  cream.  The  first  of  May 
without  your  lovely  cream  would  be  like 
chapel  without  an  organ.  The  poorest  runs 
to  a  quarter  on  that  day." 

Tobias  turned  to  Loveday. 

"You  and  me  will  go  to  the  Green  and 
dance  round  the  pole,"  he  said.  His  eyes 


182  LOVE-ACRE 

gleamed  so  brightly  they  reminded  Leah  of 
a  fire  on  a  frosty  night.  "It's  the  beginning 
of  summer  and  the  lilac  be  in  bloom  al- 
ready." 

"Do  you  miss  the  shepherding?"  asked 
Wilmot. 

Tobias  laughed  softly. 

"I  miss  nothing,"  he  answered.  "It  all 
seems  of  a  piece  somehow.  I  don't  think  I'd 
care  what  I  worked  at  so  long  as  it  wasn't 
the  butchering  or  a  hangman's  job.  Where 
be  the  youngsters?" 

"Gone  to  the  choir  to  practise  the  sing- 
ing," said  Mrs.  Trewidden.  "They'm  get- 
ting ready  for  to-morrow  night." 

"We'll  sing  ourselves  hungry,"  said  To- 
bias, "and  dance  ourselves  thirsty  and 

He  looked  at  Loveday  and  smiled,  "Come, 
let's  be  moving.  I've  promised  to  go  to  the 
'Lamb  and  Flag'  at  nine,  so  we've  only  just 
time  for  a  walk  first  and  I'll  see  you  home 
on  my  way." 

The  lovers  shook  hands  and  went  out. 


THE   ALIEN  133 

Tobias  threw  his  cap  in  the  air  and  whistled 
when  they  got  into  the  lane. 

"I  must  kiss  you  right  away  or  I'll  drop 
dead,"  said  Tobias.  "I  began  to  wish  they 
lot  asleep.  They  seemed  like  blinking  owls 
by  the  side  of  thee  and  me."  Joy  and  laugh- 
ter rang  in  his  voice.  "I've  been  like  one 
famine-struck,"  he  went  on,  "and  the  sight 
of  you  and  your  buckled  shoes  and  new  hat 
sent  me  into  a  fervor  of  spirit  unmanage- 
able before  company." 

Loveday  had  no  time  to  answer.  Her 
mouth  was  closed  as  she  was  clasped  to  his 
breast.  As  he  released  her  she  said  shyly: 

"Tobias  Boy,  my  face  seems  sore  all  over 
and  I  feel  weak  with  thy  strength,  some- 
how." 

He  caught  at  her  shoulders  and  held  her 
fast. 

"Think,  Loveday,"  he  cried,  "I've  got 
steady  work,  so  there's  only  a  wait  while  we 
get  all  ready  and  a  daily  wonder  of  meet- 
ing, and  then — you  always.  My  heart  be  in 


134  LOVE-ACRE 

a  maze  of  joy.  It's  throbbing  all  through 
me,  the  thought  that  you  are  my  wife." 

She  put  her  hand  on  his  arm  as  he  let  her 
go. 

"That's  unlucky,"  she  said.  "You  mustn't 
call  me  that  till  we'm  wed.  It  spells  disaster. 
I'm  only  your  sweetheart  yet.  Isn't  that 
enough?" 

Tobias  looked  down  upon  her  uplifted, 
questioning  eyes  as  the  moon  lit  up  their 
faces. 

"Let  disaster  come,"  he  cried.  "I'm 
strong  enough  to  fell  it  and  whoever  brings 
it.  Enough  to  be  your  sweetheart  only  I 
No!  Wife,  wife,  wife,"  he  cried. 

Loveday  clung  to  him  and  she  was  trem- 
bling at  the  passion  in  her  lover. 

"Tobias,"  she  said  solemnly  "The  Al- 
mighty can  smite  down  a  man's  pride  and 
it's  a  fearsome  thing  to  boast  in  His  face. 
It's  courtin'  tribulation  to  dare  Him  to  send 
it." 

"He'm  love,"  said  Tobias  simply.    "He  do 


THE    ALIEN  135 

surely  know  the  signs  and  can  make  allow- 
ance for  great  love  and  joy?" 

"He'm  jealous,"  said  Loveday  in  a  whis- 
per. "The  Bible  says  so." 

"I  don't  wonder,"  said  Tobias  softly. 
"HeVe  perhaps  not  calculated  the  full  won- 
der of  what  he've  suif  ered  to  wander  to  the 
earth.  There  can't  be  another  like  my  girl 
in  the  making,  even  in  heaven." 

Loveday  stood  still  and  looked  at  her  lover 
with  a  slight  frown  on  her  face. 

"Boy,"  she  said,  "folks  say  you  are  not 
like  other  chaps.  It's  these  queer  things  you 
say  makes  them  jeer.  They  think  you're 
godless  and  full  of  whimsies  and  strange 
imaginings.  It'll  only  be  because  you've  got 
this  splendid  job  as  will  pacify  my  people,  I 
can  tell  you." 

"For  why?"  asked  Tobias  indifferently. 

"They've  heard  foolish  tales  about  you 
and  they  keep  questioning  me  and  I  don't 
know  how  to  answer." 


136  LOVE-ACRE 

"Well,"  laughed  Tobias,  "what  do  they 
say?" 

"That  you  are  not  exactly,"  she  answered 
slowly,  "and  that  you  once  bit  your  own 
father  and  flew  at  your  stepmother  and — 

and "  she  hesitated,  "that  you  talked  to 

yourself  and  to  insects  when  you  was  a 
youngster  and  was  always  falling  asleep 
when  other  people  kept  wide  awake." 

Tobias  still  laughed. 

"All  of  it  was  because  I  was  put  to  and 
lonely,"  he  said.  "My  heart  was  in  a  con- 
tinual longing  and  ache  and  bitterness.  I'd 
never  even  dreamt  of  you,  you  see,  so  how 
could  it  be  prevented?  Without  you,  even 
now,  I  should  be  driven  to  tantrums  and 
dreams  again,  I  reckon." 

"There!"  she  cried.  "You're  not  even 
sorry."  She  looked  at  him  unsmilingly  and 
with  a  little  touch  of  fear  in  her  eyes. 

Tobias  was  almost  walking  on  tip-toe  with 
the  joy  in  his  heart.  He  bent  his  head  to- 
wards her  as  she  murmured: 


THE   ALIEN  137 

"Perhaps  you'd  torture  me?  How  can  I 
be  sure?" 

He  laughed  as  he  caught  her  chin  and 
tilted  up  her  sweet  face. 

"We'd  torture  one  another,  in  that  case," 
he  said,  "for  what  was  woe  to  you  would 
be  death  to  me." 

She  looked  at  him  for  a  moment  as  if  he 
were  a  stranger. 

"There's  a  bit  of  me  terribly  afraid,"  she 
said. 

"If  you  loved  me  as  I  love  you,  Loveday, 
there'd  be  no  room  for  such  a  foolish  thing,'* 
said  Tobias. 

"I  do  love  you,"  she  said  simply,  "that's 
why  I'm  afraid." 

"And  I  love  you,"  he  said  slowly,  "and 
that's  why  I'm  not." 

"It  may  not  last,"  she  said.  "They'll  give 
us  no  peace.  I'm  not  one  for  beating  back 
trouble.  I  likes  things  smooth  and  peace- 
able." 

"Loveday,  my  sweetheart,"  said  Tobias, 


138  LOVE-ACRE 

"it's  all  in  we  and  not  in  they.  They've 
no  more  power  than  beetles  if  we  believe  in 
one  another.  It's  to  us,  not  to  them.  Have 
you  doubt  of  me?" 

"Have  you  of  me?"  She  asked  the  ques- 
tion to  get  time  to  think. 

"None,"  he  said.  "Even  you  couldn't 
alter  some  things.  It's  fixed  same  as  the  sun 
or  the  moon  or  the  big  hills.  And  you?" 

He  held  both  of  her  hands,  the  cool  hands 
which  had  first  set  his  heart  on  fire. 

"Seemly,  men  knows  and  girls  only  won- 
der," she  said.  "You  lead  always,  Tobias 
Boy,  and  I'll  follow." 

"That's  it,"  he  cried,  "just  as  girls,  seem- 
ly, likes  being  loved  and  men  just  longs  only 
to  love.  It's  likely  all  in  a  wonderful  piece 
and  past  finding  out." 

They  walked  on  and  Tobias  held  one  of 
her  hands  against  his  heart. 

"What  did  you  do,  Tobias,"  Loveday 
murmured,  "after  you  left  me  on  St.  Pat- 
rick's Day?" 


THE    ALIEN  139 

He  threw  back  his  head  and  smiled  hap- 


"Slept,"  he  answered,  "like  a  dormouse, 
all  cuddled  up  in  joy,  girl." 

Loveday's  eyes  contracted. 

"Would  you  ever  tell  me  a  lie,  Tobias?" 

"Are  these  riddles?"  asked  Tobias.  "Lie 
to  you?  I  love  you!"  he  answered  simply. 
How  she  liked  to  play  with  him!  It  was 
even  joy  to  answer  all  this  make-believe. 
"You'm  joking,  Loveday." 

"No,  I'm  not.  Sam  Bryant  said  you  were 
drunk  that  night  and  that  you  could  hardly 
stand  or  see.  Father  heard  what  he  said 
and  begged  me  not  to  marry  you." 

Still  Tobias  smiled. 

"What  did  you  say,  sweetheart?"  He  put 
her  hand  against  his  cheek  and  then  kissed 
it. 

"That  you  was  a  total  abstainer.  You 
are,  aren't  you,  Tobias?" 

Her  voice  was  low  and  troubled. 


140 


LOVE-ACRE 


"Not  likely,"  said  Tobias.  "There's  no 
need." 

"Oh !"  said  Loveday  slowly.  "It's  all  true, 
then,  what  they  do  say?" 

She  gazed  at  him.  Had  he  not  heard  or 
why  was  he  smiling?  A  fear  shot  through 
her. 

"What  did  they  say?"  Tohias  asked.  He 
was  thinking  of  his  gallop  with  her  to  the 
water-lily  pond. 

"That  you'm  a  drunkard  and — and — oh! 
it  frightens  me." 

"Come  closer,"  he  said  tenderly,  "and  let 
me  comfort  you.  It's  all  foolish  chatter." 

"I'm  just  near  home,"  said  Loveday.  "I 
must  go  in  or  they'll  wonder.  I've  got  to 
see  little  Annie  Curnow  to-night.  Father 
be  taking  me,  so  as  to  help  carry  some  broth 
and  a  blanket  and  a  big  chair,  as  she's  dying, 
they  think." 

Tobias  lifted  Loveday  suddenly  in  his 
arms  when  they  got  to  the  dark  little  lane 
leading  to  her  house. 


THE   ALIEN  141 

"It  belongs,"  he  said,  "same  as  the  kissing. 
I'd  like  to  smother  you  in  love  and  hide  you 
from  the  gaze  of  all  mankind  somehow. 
Just  you  and  me  away  from  the  noise  and 
the  glare  and  the  silly  talk,  and  only  our 
love  for  company.  They  can  manifest  and 
speak  then." 

"They,"  she  echoed. 

"The  fairies  and  the  spirits  of  the  woods, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  sea  and  the  stars,"  he 
said  tenderly.  "It's  them  things  that  counts 
and  not  foolish  gossip." 

"How  very  odd,"  said  Loveday.  "It's  all 
unbeknowns  and  a  bit  silly  to  me.  Give  me 
neighbors  and  houses,  and  a  fair  name." 

"Folks  dim  the  glory  to  me,"  said  To- 
bias. "But  you'm  joy  and  wonder  to  me 
and  nothing  else  counts.  It's  just  every- 
thing to  be  alive  and  well  and  hearty,  and 
in  love  with  the  most  precious  girl  in  the 
whole  world.  Do  you  know,  Loveday,  every- 
thing I  do  or  say  has  a  bit  of  you  in  it?  If 
I  skipped  my  job  or  answered  back  sharp  or 


142  LOVE-ACRE 

thought  ugly  and  spiteful  things,  I'd  feel 
I'd  slapped  your  face,  in  a  manner  of  speak- 
ing." 

She  clung  to  him. 

"It's  when  you're  like  this  I  loves  you, 
Boy,  but  I  never  could  face  talk." 

"To  Jerusalem  with  that!"  said  Tobias. 
"It  seems  like  bothering  over  what  worms 
or  scorpions  do.  Let  'em  crawl  and  bite. 
It's  their  nature,  but  it's  nothing  to  do  with 
we.  We're  nearer  flying,  you  and  me,  with 
all  this  love  atween  us.  We'm  fathoms  deep 
in  beauty,  and  gossip  be  nothin'  but  ugli- 
ness." 

"I  feel  a  bit  easier  when  you  talk  like 
this,"  she  added;  "but  when  I  hears  the 
others  it  makes  me  tired  and  fearsome.  I 
began  to  think  they're  wiser  than  I  am,  and 
I  must  attend  and  follow  what  they  say." 

"They'm  blind,  that's  all,"  said  Tobias. 
"They'm  like  a  sheep  with  one  eye  looking 
toward  a  flock  it  wants  to  follow.  It  runs 
astray  and  into  mischief." 


THE   ALIEN  143 

"That's  what  they  think  of  you,"  said 
Loveday,  "and  father  be  very  tender  over 
me,  being  his  only  girl,  you  see." 

"Tender  over  you!"  echoed  Tobias.  "Who 
could  help  it?  I  would  save  you  from  any 
disaster." 

"I  know  you  would,"  she  said  gently.  She 
looked  up  at  him  gravely.  "But  why  did 
Sam  Bryant  say  you  drank?  He  said  you 
told  him  so  yourself  and  he's  seen  you  tipsy." 

There  was  a  long  pause  as  Tobias  looked 
down  into  the  beautiful  face.  She  shivered. 

"I  could  never  love  you  if  you  drank," 
she  said. 

"Nor  I  you,"  he  answered  gently.  "I 
mean  I'd  keep  off  till  I  was  cured." 

"Why  did  he  say  it?"  she  insisted.  She 
suddenly  lowered  her  head.  "He  said  you 
were  drunk  on  St.  Patrick's  night.  How 
could  he  know  it  even  if  it  was  true?" 

"He'm  a  drunkard  himself  and  lies  in  his 
cups,"  said  Tobias  slowly.  "He  knows  it's 
a  lie,  and  you "  He  was  smiling  at  her 


144  LOVE-ACRE 

again.  The  memory  of  St.  Patrick's  night 
had  suffused  him.  He  lifted  her  again  in 
his  arms  and  kissed  her  passionately. 

"Put  me  down,  Boy,"  she  gasped.  "I 
must  go  in.  They  are  waiting." 

She  was  agitated  and  some  foreboding 
in  him  answered  to  her  mood. 

"Loveday,  dearest,"  he  said,  "I'll  meet  you 
later." 

"Are  you  sure?"  she  asked.  "Why  do  you 
go  to  the  Lamb  and  Flag  to-night?  Don't 
go.  I  ask  it.  Stay  away,  for  my  sake." 

"It's  a  great  nuisance,"  he  said,  "but  you 
see  I've  promised." 

She  had  vanished  before  he  could  say 
more,  and  he  saw  the  light  in  her  little  home 
as  she  opened  the  door.  He  walked  down 
the  lane  with  a  very  solemn  face. 

"Love  be  the  most  fearsome  of  all  things," 
he  muttered.  "Shepherding  be  a  pastime  by 
the  side  of  it." 

By  the  time  Tobias  had  arrived  at  the 
Lamb  and  Flag  he  was  himself  again,  and 


THE   ALIEN  145 

he  whistled  as  he  entered  the  square  stone 
building  with  the  light  behind  its  red  blinds, 
giving  a  welcome  which  many  good  house- 
wives declared  was  more  suitable  to  a  home 
than  a  tavern.  The  inn  was  noted  for  its 
remarkable  roof.  The  thatch  had  borne  the 
gusts  of  many  winters,  and  the  common 
house  leek  flourished  about  the  eaves  and  on 
the  thatch.  Many  of  the  little  cottages  had 
begged  a  bit  of  this  "welcome  home  husband 
be  you  ever  so  drunk,"  which  was  the  local 
name  for  the  plant,  to  put  on  their  own  walls 
or  roofs  for  luck. 

The  first  person  Tobias  saw  as  he  entered 
the  little  parlor  was  Sam  Bryant.  He  was 
laughing  at  something  Bill  Trewhella  had 
just  said.  The  sight  of  Sam  recalled  sud- 
denly to  Tobias  the  whole  incident  of  St. 
Patrick's  night  when  the  butcher  had  come 
for  a  flock  of  sheep.  How  could  Sam  know 
that  it  was  love  and  not  beer  which  had  in- 
toxicated him  then?  What  a  fool  he  was 
not  to  have  remembered  and  explained  to 


146  LOVE-ACRE 

Loveday.  He  saw  it  all  now  and  spoke  cor- 
dially to  Sam,  after  greeting  Albert  Tre- 
mayne  and  several  others  lounging  in  the 
settles  on  both  sides  of  the  open  fireplace. 

"Good  evening,  mate,"  he  said  cheerily  to 
Sam.  "How's  things?" 

"Slow  and  sure,"  answered  Sam.  "How's 
yourself?" 

"Fine,"  said  Tobias  as  he  squared  his 
shoulders  and  sat  down. 

"Have  a  glass?"  asked  Albert  Tremayne. 

Tobias  shook  his  head. 

"Just  a  toothful  to  keep  us  company?" 
said  Bill. 

Tobias  smiled. 

"Not  a  leak,"  said  Tobias.  "I'm  not  a  bit 
thirsty  yet." 

"Come,  shepherd,"  said  Sam.  "It's  for 
luck  and  will  bring  you  a  job." 

"I've  got  it,"  said  Tobias.  He  told  his 
good  news. 

Albert  Tremayne  scowled.  He  pulled 
surlily  at  his  pipe. 


THE   ALIEN  147 

"What's  this  nonsense  about  Loveday 
Cocking?"  asked  Albert.  "Town's  talk 
only,  of  course?" 

Tobias  laughed  happily  and  shook  his 
head. 

"Be  you  really  plighted?"  asked  Bill. 

The  pressure  of  Loveday's  lips  seemed 
still  on  his  as  Tobias  framed  a  proper  an- 
swer. 

"By  all  the  signs,"  he  said. 

Albert's  gaze  slowly  wandered  from  the 
feet  of  Tobias  to  his  curly  head. 

"You've  filched  she,"  said  Albert.  "A 
measly  trick  in  any  chap."  He  turned  and 
looked  at  Bill. 

"Snapped  her,  sure  enough,  right  out  of 
Albert's  mouth,"  said  Bill. 

Albert  Tremayne  stood  up,  and  with 
thumbs  in  his  waistcoat  he  faced  Tobias. 
The  whole  room  seemed  interested  and  the 
clatter  of  mugs  ceased. 

"Don't  be  fools,"  said  Tobias.  "She  never 
belonged  to  no  man  at  all." 


148  LOVE-ACRE 

Sam  laughed  a  coarse  laugh. 

"How  the  devil  do  you  know  that,  young- 
ster?" 

Tobias  quietly  crossed  his  legs  and  folded 
his  arms. 

"I've  her  word,"  he  said. 

The  three  men  laughed  loudly. 

"While  you've  been  shepherding  she've 
been  grazing,  lad,"  said  Sam.  "You  don't 
know  the  ways  of  maidens  out  at  grass, 
seemly." 

"It's  a  silly  joke,"  said  Tobias,  "just  to 
pass  the  time.  It's  a  passil  of  foolishness, 
seems  to  me,  to  talk  like  this  'ere  anyway." 

"Don't  you  believe  it?"  asked  Albert.  He 
came  closer  to  Tobias  and  the  men  grinned 
in  anticipation  of  a  row. 

"No,  I  don't,"  said  Tobias,  smiling.  "I'm 
not  such  a  ninny." 

Bill  got  up  too  and  leaned  against  the 
mantelpiece  as  he  faced  Tremayne  and 
looked  down  on  Tobias. 

"Do  you  fancy,"  he  asked  slowly,  "that 


THE   ALIEN  149 

women  tells  greenhorns  what  man  they've 
kissed  and  cuddled?" 

Sam  spat  into  the  little  tin  spitoon  as  he 
spoke  thoughtfully.  "Their  craft  be  allus 
to  hold  up  a  clean  slate  for  fools  to  write 
on,  eh,  mates?"  He  turned  to  Albert  and 
Bill.  "Every  man  reckons  on  that,  don't 
he?" 

Albert  was  gazing  steadily  at  Tobias.  He 
suddenly  called  for  the  landlord.  When  he 
came  he  pointed  to  Tobias  and  Bill  and  Sam. 

"Four  half  and  half,"  he  said.  When  the 
glasses  were  on  the  little  table  Albert  looked 
full  in  the  face  of  Tobias. 

"I'll  pledge  you  on  your  bargain,"  he 
muttered. 

Tobias  waved  his  hand.  "Let  someone 
else  drink  the  stuff,"  he  said.  "It's  not  my 
liquor." 

"Dill  water  perhaps,"  sneered  Albert. 

There  was  a  loud  laugh  from  the  end  of 
the  room. 

Albert  turned  and  winked  at  the  men. 


150  LOVE-ACRE 

"Tobias  Trewidden,"  he  said  roughly,  "if 
you  be  a  man  at  all  I'll  challenge  you  to 
drink  Loveday  Cooking's  health  in  this  'ere 
if  you  believe  her  innocent.  If  not,  well, 
we  shall  all  know  what's  the  matter." 

"There's  no  need  to  drink,"  said  Tobias, 
frowning;  "I'll  not  sully  her  name  with  such 
stuff." 

"He  knows  she's  a  flighty  one,"  said  Bill. 
He  sat  down  near  Tobias. 

"Superfine  youngster,"  said  Sam. 
"Come,  shepherd.  It's  no  use  putting  on 
too  much  swank.  I've  seen  you  reeling  tipsy, 
mind." 

"Nonsense,"  laughed  Tobias.  "You  knew 
that  was  a  joke.  I've  never  drunk  anything 
stronger  than  well  water  in  my  life." 

Albert  doubled  up  with  laughter  and  held 
his  sides. 

"My  God!"  he  cried.  "And  you  dare  to 
make  love  to  a  buxom  woman  like  Loveday. 
If  your  kisses  be  on  that  soft  sawney  line 
she'll "  He  stopped  and  looked  round 


THE   ALIEN  151 

as  the  men  nudged  each  other  and  grinned. 

"She'll  just  pass  'em  on,"  said  Bill,  "that's 
all.  Women  likes  'em  hot  and  strong,  shep- 
herd, whatever  they  may  say." 

Tobias  had  grown  very  white.  He  looked 
stubbornly  round  the  room.  "Seemly  you 
know  nothing,"  he  said  sternly,  "neither 
about  women  nor  mating  nor  yet  kisses. 
Women  be  bad  and  good,  surely,  same  as 

men,  and  as  for  kisses "  He  stopped 

and  a  stern  light  leapt  into  his  eyes  as  he 
heard  them  jeering. 

"Tell  us  what  wisdom  you've  picked  up 
over  they,  shepherd,"  said  Sam  kindly. 
"We're  all  men  here  and  won't  peach." 

Tobias  colored  to  the  roots  of  his  hair. 

"Let's  drop  it,"  he  said. 

Albert  Tremayne  drew  his  chair  nearer 
to  Tobias. 

"You  ought  to  be  bound  up  in  velvet  and 
put  along  with  the  family  Bible,"  he  said. 
"Men's  talk  over  women  be  like  drink  and 
swearing.  It's  only  a  drivelling  sawney  who 


152  LOVE-ACRE 

can't  or  won't  tell  his  ventures  with  girls. 
You  needn't  mention  names.  We'll  guess 
those." 

"It's  beastly,"  said  Tobias,  "and  no  real 
man  would  do  it." 

Albert  bit  his  lip. 

"Look  here,"  he  said.  "If  you  are  such 
a  fine  rooster,  mate,  drink  that  there.  I  chal- 
lenge you  from  man  to  man.  It's  to  her 
health,  mind,  and  if  you  daren't  do  it  I'll  see 
she  knows  of  it  this  very  night." 

"She'd  commend  me,"  said  Tobias.  "She 
hates  drink  and  them  as  takes  it." 

"That's  all  you  know,"  said  Albert.  "I 
happen  to  know  better." 

"I've  proof,"  said  Tobias. 

"Women  be  very  foxey,  mind,"  said  Bill. 
"Often  what  they  desires  they  condemns 
most  and  pretends  to  despise,  just  to  see  if 
their  sweethearts  be  as  masterful  and  strong- 
headed  as  they  hopes." 

"It's  the  weak-headed  what  drinks,"  said 
Tobias,  "and  the  long-winded  as  boasts." 


THE   ALIEN  153 

"Damn  you,  Tobias!"  cried  Albert  hoarse- 
ly. "We  want  none  of  your  Sunday  school 
jargon  here.  Drink  to  Loveday." 

All  the  men  in  the  room  gathered  round 
Tobias  and  Albert. 

"I'll  drink  in  ginger  beer,"  said  Tobias. 

"You  won't,"  said  Albert.  "That's  ill- 
whist.  You'll  drink  to  her  proper  or  not  at 
all."  He  turned  to  the  men  with  his  glass 
in  his  hand.  "Here's  to  her  joy  and  health 
and  marriage  to  a  seemly  man,"  he  cried. 
They  all  clinked  glasses. 

Tobias  suddenly  sprang  to  his  feet. 

"Here's  to  her,  then — Loveday,  my  future 
wife.  Let's  drink  to  her,  body  and  soul." 
He  drained  the  glass. 

Albert  stared  at  him  with  his  glass  only 
begun. 

"My  gosh!"  cried  Sam.  "The  woman 
won't  whine  for  an  owner.  He'll  hold  her 
beyond  stealing,  sure  enough." 

"The  devil!"  cried  Albert.  "You'm  an 
old  hand,  after  all." 


154  LOVE-ACRE 

"You've  lost  your  wager,  Albert,"  cried 
Bill. 

"Your  what?"  asked  Tobias. 

The  three  men  stared  blankly  at  one  an- 
other and  the  group  in  the  back  of  the  room 
whispered  together. 

"We'd  a  bit  of  a  bet  on  the  female  con- 
stitution," said  Sam  sheepishly.  "Bert  there 
said  you  knew  no  more  than  a  maiden  about 
women  folk,  and  I  said  you  could  outstrip 
we  in  knowledge." 

"It  was  nothing  of  the  kind,"  said  Al- 
bert. "What  I  mean  I  may  as  well  say. 
I'm  playing  with  cards  on  the  table  now. 
That  girl  Loveday  have  got  to  retrace  her 
steps  a  bit,  that's  all.  She'm  mine  and  I 
mean  to  have  her.  You're  a  paltry  thief. 
If  you've  any  doubts  go  and  ask  her." 

A  whirling  sensation  was  mounting  to  the 
brain  of  Tobias.  He  saw  Albert's  flaming 
face  close  to  his  as  he  stammered  out. 

"I'd  scorn  to  ask  her  such  a  shameful 


THE   ALIEN  155 

thing.  It's  not  in  nature  she  can  belong  to 
both  of  us." 

Albert  grinned. 

"Well,  that's  a  point  gained  anyway,"  he 
retorted.  "No,  she  cannot  marry  us  both, 
young  cuckoo.  Who  be  she  foxing,  do  you 
think?"' 

"No  one,"  said  Tobias.  "She'm  comely  in 
soul  and  body  and  her  word  be  her  bond. 
She'm  mine  and  so  cannot  be  thine." 

"Leave  him  be,  Albert,"  said  Bill  sudden- 
ly. "It's  a  bit  of  a  shame,  after  all.  He'm  a 
suckling  and  pitiable." 

"Pitiable!"  cried  Tobias.  "Who  be  piti- 
able? You're  all  clean  daft.  What  do  you 
mean  at  all?" 

"Look  'ere,  Trewidden,"  said  Albert. 
"Listen  to  me.  This  is  getting  beyond  a 
joke.  When  two  men  be  bent  on  getting 
the  same  woman,  one  of  'em  have  got  to  take 
a  back  seat.  I'm  in  the  front  row  for  the 
moving  picture.  See?" 


156  LOVE-ACRE 

"I'm  in  the  picture,  in  a  manner  of  speak- 
ing," said  Tobias. 

"Clear  out  of  it,  then,  if  you  wants  to  keep 
alive,"  cried  Albert.  "The  woman's  bespoke. 
She've  got  to  marry  me  and  we'll  have  the 
banns  put  up  before  you've  taken  your  first 
month's  wages.  I'm  a  chap  to  my  word." 

"And  I  don't  belong  to  bow  to  frustra- 
tion," said  Tobias.  "The  maid  be  vowed  to 
me  and  so  be  pledged  beyond  recall." 

"I've  seen  Albert  and  Loveday  dlinking 
afore  now,"  said  Bill. 

The  landlord  came  in  and  filled  the  empty 
glasses  at  a  sign  from  Sam. 

"Takin'  arms  bean't  nothin',"  said  Tobias. 

"And  I  heard  a  smacking  of  lips  once," 
said  Sam  as  he  wiped  his  mouth,  after  emp- 
tying his  glass  at  one  draught. 

Tobias  looked  hard  at  Sam.  He  spoke 
bitterly. 

"By  the  time  youVe  got  out  of  this  room, 
mate,  you'll  likely  have  heard  more  than 
that.  This  filthy,  fiery  stuff  be  enough  to 


THE   ALIEN  157 

make  you  see  and  hear  any  disaster.  I  guess 
you'll  both  see  and  hear  double  before 
dawn." 

"Fiery  stuff!  Beer!"  cried  Albert. 
"Have  a  gin  and  bitters  for  coolness,  do." 

"It's  the  first  and  last  of  its  sort  I'll  ever 
reckon  with,"  said  Tobias.  "I  feel  as  sick 
as  a  dog  and  must  be  going." 

"Going  where?"  asked  Albert. 

"To  meet  Loveday,"  Tobias  answered. 
"I'm  late  now." 

"He've  lost !"  It  was  echoed  through  the 
room.  The  landlord  had  just  come  in  with 
more  beer  and  the  four  men  stood  close  to 
Tobias,  who  suddenly  sat  down  with  his  hand 
to  his  head  as  they  closed  round  him. 

"You'll  not  meet  her,"  said  Albert  sav- 
agely. "I'll  go  instead." 

"Instead  of  me,"  cried  Tobias.  "No, 
thank  you.  I'm  off  to  once'st." 

Albert  lurched  towards  him. 

"Take  that,"  he  said,  "and  that  for  the 
measly  thief  you  are."  He  hit  Tobias  across 


158  LOVE-ACRE 

the  face  and  the  second  blow  sent  him 
sprawling,  because  of  its  unexpectedness,  on 
to  the  sandy  floor.  His  head  caught  the  tin 
spittoon  and  the  force  of  the  fall  brought 
blood  running  down  his  face.  He  leaped  to 
his  feet  and  rushed  at  Albert,  who  stood 
doubled  up  with  laughter.  His  hands  were 
in  his  trousers  pockets. 

As  Tobias  rose  and  advanced  toward  his 
foe  Albert  shouted  at  him: 

"She've  mocked  at  you,  fool,  and  wants 
to  be  free  of  her  bargain  in  crazy  shep- 
herds. She  says  you  boasted  you'd  separate 
her  and  me,  and  she've  the  kisses  of  two 
savors  on  her  lips,  mind." 

Tobias  flung  his  long  arms  in  the  air  as 
he  came  toward  Albert.  With  two  crashing 
blows  he  felled  his  foe.  With  a  roar  like  a 
bull,  Albert  sprang  to  his  feet  and  the  two 
men  were  locked  in  one  another's  arms. 
There  was  absolute  stillness  in  the  room,  ex- 
cept for  the  thudding  blows  and  the  quick 
breathing  of  the  two  fighters.  It  was  a 


THE   ALIEN  159 

savage  struggle,  but  Tobias  won,  and  with 
bowed  head  fled  from  the  inn.  He  wiped 
the  wet  red  stream  from  his  face,  but  his 
hair  was  matted  with  it  and  he  felt  giddy  and 
shameful.  Scarcely  knowing  what  he  was 
doing,  he  walked  to  the  little  invalid's  home, 
where  Loveday  had  told  him  she  would  be. 
As  he  stood  under  the  big  lamp  over  the 
door,  Loveday  and  her  father  stepped  out. 
They  saw  Tobias  at  once.  Loveday  screamed 
and  her  father  stepped  forward. 

"Whatever  is  this?"  he  cried.  "What  in 
the  name  of  heaven  has  happened?" 

"I've  had  a  fall,"  said  Tobias. 

"Ohl"  cried  Loveday.  "Bring  him  in, 
father.  He's  bleeding." 

"No,"  whispered  Mr.  Cocking.  "We  can't 
go  in.  It  will  frighten  the  girl.  Come  on 
home.  How  did  it  happen?  You  look  fit 
to  faint." 

"An  accident,"  said  Tobias. 

"An  accident  in  'The  Lamb  and  Flag,' 
gasped  Loveday.  Her  voice  was  hard. 


160  LOVE-ACRE 

"Yes,"  said  Tobias. 

"Was  it  your  fault?"  asked  Mr.  Cocking. 

"Yes,"  said  Tobias. 

There  was  silence  as  they  slowly  walked 
toward  the  next  lamp-post.  There  they 
faced  two  men,  Albert  Tremayne  and  Sam 
Bryant.  Albert's  face  was  already  swollen 
and  his  eyes  had  the  expression  of  a  fighting 
tom-cat. 

"He,"  pointing  a  finger  at  Tobias,  "have 
tried  to  murder  me."  He  pointed  to  his  face. 
"He'm  not  safe  abroad." 

Loveday  looked  from  her  lover  to  Albert 
and  then  at  her  father.  Her  face  was  white 
and  scared. 

"You've  lied,  Trewidden,"  said  Mr. 
Cocking.  "It  evidently  was  no  accident." 

"In  a  manner  of  speaking  it  was,"  safd 
Tobias,  "and  in  another  way  it  was  not." 
He  had  turned  away  from  Loveday  as  he 
spoke  and  the  light  from  the  lamp  fell  on  his 
matted  hair. 

"Oh!"  cried  Loveday.    "How  horrible  he 


THE   ALIEN  161 

looks."  Then  turning  to  him,  she  said: 
"Doesn't  your  face  hurt  you?" 

Something  woke  in  him,  and  a  great  an- 
guish, like  a  gray  mist,  enveloped  him. 

"It  all  hurts,"  he  said  brokenly.  "Where 
shall  I  go,  what  shall  I  do?" 

A  burst  of  laughter  broke  from  Albert 
Tremayne. 

"Tell  the  cry-baby,  Loveday,"  he  said. 
"Where  shall  he  go,  what  shall  he  do?"  he 
mimicked. 

Fear  was  in  Loveday's  eyes.  She  looked 
up  at  her  lover.  He  looked  down  on  his 
love.  It  seemed  that  Death  held  him  by  the 
throat.  He  could  not  speak.  In  her  alone 
was  the  rescue. 

"Smell  his  breath,"  cried  Albert.  "Ask 
Sam  there.  He  saw  it  all." 

"Oh!"  murmured  Loveday.  "Yes — Sam 

"  she  said.  "You  see,  I  don't  know 

much  about " 

The  despair  in  her  lover's  eyes  stopped 


162  LOVE-ACRE 

her  and  she  shrank  from  Tobias  toward  her 
father. 

"He's  waiting  to  know  where  he  shall  go," 
sneered  Albert. 

"To  hell  as  far  as  I  am  concerned,"  said 
Mr.  Cocking.  "Answer  him  quickly,  Love- 
day,  and  let  us  go !  Don't  get  too  close.  He 
certainly  smells  of  drink." 

The  lamplight  showed  the  pale  face  of 
Tobias  and  his  arms  were  outstretched.  The 
grotesque  figure,  with  the  hair  matted  witK 
blood,  standing  against  the  lamp-post, 
seemed  in  the  dim  light  a  sort  of  crazy  image 
of  Christ.  Tobias  stood  motionless  a  mo- 
ment. 

"Go  where  you  like.  How  should  I 
know?"  The  words  rang  clearly  and  cruelly, 
and  Tobias  dropped  as  the  dead  drop. 

"Here,  Tremayne,"  said  Mr.  Cocking. 
'This  is  no  sight  for  a  woman.  Take  Love- 
day  home  for  me,  there's  a  good  chap,  and 
Sam  and  me  will  carry  this  shaver  to  bed. 


THE   ALIEN  163 

He'm  not  as  seasoned  in  drink  as  I  was  led 
to  believe,  so  there's  hope  for  the  girl  yet." 

Loveday,  with  bent  head,  took  Albert  Tre- 
mayne's  arm,  and  Mr.  Cocking  raised  To- 
bias from  the  ground.  Sam  ran  after  Al- 
bert and  whispered: 

"•My  Gosh,  you've  won,  Bert.  It  was 
nearly  lost.  We  was  all  in  a  stew,  for  we'd 
bet  hard  on  you  winning  back  the  girl  to- 
night. Real  sport,  old  man,  and  no  one 
really  hurt."  He  dashed  back  to  help  Mr. 
Cocking,  and  said  in  a  friendly  voice : 

"Tobias  be'ant  half  a  bad  youngster.  We 
all  badgered  him  a  bit,  and  he'd  only  a  glass, 
after  all.  He  showed  fine  fight." 

"We'll  get  him  to  bed  and  let  it  pass," 
said  Mr.  Cocking.  "Youngsters  will  be 
youngsters,  and  he'll  be  as  right  as  rain  by 
morning." 

The  two  men  carried  their  apparently  life- 
less burden  to  the  house  and  tapped  gently 
at  the  kitchen  door.  Leah  opened  it  with 
her  finger  on  her  lip. 


164  LOVE-ACRE 

"They'm  all  in  bed,"  she  whispered.  "I 
stayed  up  for  Tobias."  She  started  back 
as  the  men  silently  brought  in  the  shepherd. 

"Oh!  sakes,"  she  cried.    "He'm  dead!" 

"No,  not  at  all,"  said  Mr.  Cocking  kind- 
ly. "He've  had  a  drop  too  much,  and  have 
been  fighting."  ' 

Leah  looked  eagerly  at  Tobias. 

"That's  the  unlikeliest  thing  that  could 
be,"  she  said.  "He  could  never  compass  sin 
and  shame  like  this  'ere.  Something  must 
have  driven  him  silly  crazy  with  woe." 

Sam  smiled. 

"I've  seen  him  ordinary  tipsy  afore,"  he 
said,  "even  while  tending  his  flock,  but  never 
as  far  gone  as  this." 

Leah  bent  forward  towards  Sam. 

"He's  seemingly  light-headed  at  times," 
she  said,  "and  full  of  fancies.  He's  been 
overdone  some  way,  I'm  sure.  See!  there's 
blood." 

"He  fought  hard,"  said  Mr.  Cocking, 
"and  won,  I  believe." 


THE   ALIEN  165 

"He's  some  sorry  sight  for  a  victor,"  said 
Sam,  "and  he'd  best  just  sleep  it  off  till  the 
morning." 

"He  has  an  unbeknowns  look,"  said  Leah. 
"He've  once  or  twice  seemly  passed  beyond 
reach.  Perhaps  he's  that  way  now.  He's 
not  like  the  others,  you  know." 

Mr.  Cocking  bent  over  Tobias  as  he  lay 
on  the  hearth  rug. 

"He  do  look  a  bit  queer,"  he  said.  "Per- 
haps we'd  better  send  the  doctor  along  as  we 
goes  home,  just  to  ease  your  mind." 

The  two  men  carried  Tobias  gently  to 
Leah's  little  room.  They  came  down  in  a 
few  minutes  and  tiptoed  to  the  door. 

"He'm  more  like  a  child  as  have  played 
and  fought  beyond  his  strength,"  Mr.  Cock- 
ing murmured.  "He'm  scarcely  fit  for  the 
natural  strife  of  daily  life." 

"He've  the  spirit  of  a  lion,"  said  Leah, 
"but  he  was  only  a  seven  months'  little  one 
and  perhaps  somethin'  was  left  out  as  most 
of  we  do  belong  to  have,  and  somethin'  else 


166  LOVE-ACRE 

put  in,  as  I,  for  one,  should  pray  to  be  de- 
livered from." 

"Same  here,"  said  Sam.  "Give  me  steady 
nerves  and  a  work-a-day  brain-piece." 

"And  me  a  man  of  that  make  for  my 
daughter,"  said  Mr.  Cocking  emphatically, 
"and  not  a  crazy,  dreaming  chap,  all  nerves 
and  moods." 

When  they  had  gone  Leah  crept  upstairs 
and  put  a  shaded  lamp  near  Tobias.  She 
then  brought  a  basin  with  some  soft  water 
and  a  rag  and  wiped  away  the  blood  and  dirt 
from  his  face.  He  scarcely  breathed  and  his 
lips  were  purple.  She  heard  a  footstep  and 
went  down.  It  was  old  Dr.  Rosewarne. 

"Tobias  ill,  I  hear?"  he  queried. 

"He's  very  strange,"  she  answered. 

"Drinking  and  fighting,  they  say.  Odd 
thing,"  said  the  doctor. 

Leah  nodded. 

"Not  a  bit  like  him,"  said  Dr.  Rosewarne. 
"The  cub  has  always  interested  me.  It's  a 
case  of  prenatal  congestion.  His  mother  had 


THE   ALIEN  167 

a  blow  and  was  a  little  paralyzed — you 
know." 

"Yes,"  said  Leah.  "A  window  cord 
broke  and  fell  on  her  head." 

The  doctor  whistled. 

"It's  sometimes  just  those  things  that  al- 
ter nations.  Madmen  and  psychics,  Na- 
poleons and  Wainwrights,  are  produced  with 
less  than  that.  Cerebral " 

"Oh!  lor'!"  cried  Leah.  "Don't  say  he's 
that  too,  whatever  it  is.  Why,  he'll  never 
recover." 

"Oh!  it  all  sounds  worse  than  it  is,"  said 
the  doctor,  smiling.  "We  must  give  names 
to  these  things,  though  we  know  little 
enough  about  them.  All  that  matters  really 
is  that  people  like  Tobias  need  delicate 
handling  or  they  become  dangers.  It's  the 
difference  betwen  a  Shetland  pony  and  a 
racer.  This  lad,  I  confess,  is  beyond  me.  I 
can't  always  cure  him  by  purges  and  tonics. 
He  baffles  me.  Let  me  see  him." 

Leah  led  the  way  upstairs  and  closed  the 


168  LOVE-ACRE 

door  softly  when  they  were  inside  the  room. 
The  doctor  felt  his  pulse,  lifted  his  eyelids 
and  probed  under  the  curls  where  the  blood 
showed.  He  was  silent  some  time  and  then 
beckoned  Leah  out  of  the  room.  When  they 
were  in  the  kitchen  he  pointed  to  the  stove. 

"A  hot  water-bottle  to  his  feet,  no  noise, 
watch  him  most  of  the  night,  and  when  he 
wakens  treat  the  whole  affair  as  if  it  had 
never  happened.  Much  depends  on  this. 
Probably  he  may  waken  a  different  man. 
Till  now  he  has  been  a  child  and  a  dreamer. 
Some  shock  has  done  this." 

Leah  was  crying  gently. 

"He's  had  no  shock,"  she  whimpered. 
"He'm  in  love  and  crazy  happy.  It  can't 
be." 

The  old  doctor  put  his  hand  on  Leah's 
shoulder. 

"Now  you  give  me  a  clue,"  he  said.  "It 
is  just  love  that  builds  or  breaks  a  nature 
like  that." 


THE   ALIEN  169 

"Surely  there's  a  betwixt  and  between," 
said  Leah  feebly. 

"Not  to  creatures  of  Tobias'  make,"  he 
answered.  "Is  the  woman  any  good?" 

Leah  looked  hard  at  the  doctor. 

"I'm  no  judge  of  females,"  she  said.  "I 
don't  cotton  to  them.  She  be  perfect  in  the 
eyes  of  Tobias.  That's  all  I  know." 

"Lucky  dog  and  poor  devil,"  said  the  doc- 
tor. "I've  no  drug  to  cure  that.  Nature 
must  help  him  or  kill  him.  Rest,  warmth  and 
your  care.  That  is  all  that  can  be  done. 
I'll  come  in  to-morrow.  No  drink  and  no 
fighting  can  beat  love  for  disaster,"  he  mut- 
tered to  himself  as  he  went  out. 

"Or  for  glory,"  added  Leah.  "Tobias 
will  make  that  manifest." 

"If  he  lives,"  said  the  doctor.  "Most  of 
them  die  and  have  grand  tombstones  erected 
by  the  women  who  kill  them." 


PART  V 
THE  DREAMER 


THE  DREAMER 

IT  was  a  wonderful  place,  and  Tobias 
Trewidden,  even  as  a  shepherd,  had  never 
seen  anything  so  lovely.  It  was  an  exquisite 
garden  and  a  divine  wildernes  in  one.  Noth- 
ing seemed  in  order  and  yet  all  was  orderli- 
ness. The  scents  and  sounds  around  him 
were  like  dreams  and  music,  and  the  flutter 
of  winged  and  chirruping  things  made  To- 
bias begin  to  hum  the  soft  lullabys  Leah  had 
taught  him  when  he  was  a  child.  These  were 
answered  at  once  by  invisible  playmates,  and 
a  vibrant  whirr,  like  the  soft  melodies  from 
harps  and  guitars,  filled  the  air. 

"I  feel  washed  inside  and  out,"  murmured 
Tobias,  "and  my  mother  seems  very  near." 

She  was  near,  just  as  near  as  his  thoughts 
of  her.  Tobias  had  not  noticed  a  trans- 
parent house  among  a  tall  avenue  of  trees. 
173 


174  LOVE-ACRE 

Evidently  she  lived  in  that.  A  line  of  odor- 
ous shrubs  leading  to  it  seemed  alight  with 
tiny  crystal  lamps  of  every  color.  The  glass 
door  of  the  house  was  wide  open  and  a  figure 
stood  within.  It  beckoned  to  Tobias  and 
he  ran  quicker  than  a  shepherd  runs  to  his 
flock. 

"Mary,  my  mother,"  he  cried. 

"Tobias,  my  beloved  son,"  she  answered. 
With  one  impulse  they  knelt  together  and 
clasped  hands.  Then  she  cradled  his  curly 
head  upon  her  breast. 

"At  last,"  she  whispered. 

"Mammy,"  he  cried,  for  he  had  forgotten 
he  was  a  man.  He  had  missed  her  so  long 
that  he  went  back  to  the  time  he  needed  her 
most  and  had  called  for  her  in  vain.  He 
suddenly  raised  his  head  and  looked  into 
her  wonderful  face.  She  had  such  large 
eyes  that  Tobias  knew,  without  being  told, 
that  they  could  see  far  beyond  mortal 
vision. 

"My  child,"  she  whispered  softly,  "this  is 


THE   DREAMER  175 

a  great  gift  to  us  and  a  big  price  must  be 
paid  for  it." 

Tobias  laughed  joyfully. 

"We'll  pay,"  he  said.  "I  knew  I'd  see  you 
one  day  because  of  all  the  messages,  and 

here  you  are  in "  He  hesitated.  He  was 

going  to  add,  "flesh  and  blood,"  but  some- 
thing stopped  him.  He  held  her  robe  and 
sighed.  "It's  just  heaven,"  he  said. 

"My  only  begotten  son,"  she  answered, 
"and  so  my  love  pierced  all  the  veils.  You 
knew  and  know." 

"Mother,"  he  said,  "it's  a  g'eat  loveli- 
ness, isn't  it?  The  loneliness  don't  count 
now.  If  I'd  only  known  I'd  have  had  pa- 
tience." 

"It  is  why  it  is  permitted,"  she  said.  "I 
have  had  little  peace  because  of  your  pain. 
I've  longed  to  change  the  mountain  peaks 
into  valleys  in  the  map  of  your  life  and  the 
wilderness  into  a  garden.  I've  ached  to 
bring  softness  where  roughness  alone  would 
avail.  My  prayers  and  my  work  here  have 


176  LOVE-ACRE 

prevailed  at  last  and  my  arms  enfold  you." 

"Where  are  we?"  asked  Tobias. 

"In  Love-Acre,"  Mary  answered,  "and 
the  laws  here  must  be  fulfilled  to  the  last  let- 
ter. Even  in  the  World- Acre  they  are  not 
so  hard  if  disobedience  comes  from  not 
rightly  knowing.  Here  we  know." 

"Love- Acre!"  cried  Tobias.  "Why,  this 
is  the  land  of  all  my  dreams!" 

"It  is  the  Acre  where  the  Great  Meanings 
begin  to  show,"  she  said. 

"How?"  cried  Tobias. 

"Have  patience,  little  son,"  Mary  an- 
swered as  she  rose  to  her  feet.  "Hold  me 
close,  for  the  time  is  short  and  I  have  much 
I  want  to  say."  She  led  him  to  the  trans- 
parent house. 

"Why!"  he  cried,  "here  is  the  shop.  See! 
the  dewdrops  hanging  in  the  window  and 
the  gossamer  threads  and  the  lovely  wings  I" 
He  ran  from  place  to  place  and  in  a  boy's 
ecstacy  flung  himself  against  her  robe.  She 
led  him  beyond  the  shop  into  a  large  en- 


THE   DREAMER  177 

closure  and  they  lay  together  on  a  thick  yel- 
low carpet  of  pollen  dust  which  covered  the 
entire  floor. 

"I'm  so  full  of  fervor  and  joy,"  said  To- 
bias. "I  want  to  die  so  that  I  can  breathe 
easy,  seems  to  me." 

"You  have  first  to  live,"  said  Mary  the 
mother,  "and  to  die  in  living.  Remember, 
child,  that  to  love  is  to  die  continually,  but 
to  die  for  what  you  love  is  the  only  life.  I 
want  you  to  have  patience  and  never  forget 
that." 

"Patience,"  said  Tobias,  "is  only  for 
sheep  and  women.  I'm  a  man." 

His  mother  ran  her  hands  through  his 
curls. 

"When  a  man  learns  as  you  must  learn 
he  needs  more  than  the  patience  of  women 
and  sheep,"  she  said.  "He  must  learn  to 
have  the  patience  of  the  gods,  for  they  know 
only  love." 

"The  gods!"  cried  Tobias.  "There's  only 
one  God," 


178  LOVE-ACRE 

"Who  has  many  sons  and  daughters  who 
die  the  death,"  said  Mary,  and  Tobias  won- 
dered at  the  radiance  in  her  face.  "The  an- 
nunciations are  beyond  reckoning,  but  the 
still-births  frustrate  the  great  Will."  She 
put  her  hand  across  the  puzzled  brow  of  her 
son. 

"Is  this  a  school?"  asked  Tobias.  "Are 
the  teachers  afraid  and  the  scholars  dull,  or 
what  is  the  matter?  The  shop  is  so  very 
pretty,  and  the  flowers  and  you  are  all  I 
knew  you  were  in  my  dreams." 

"The  biggest  lessons  are  taught  here  to 
the  simple,  and  the  greatest  chances  of  re- 
nunciation are  offered  to  the  weak,"  said  the 
mother.  "The  pure  in  heart  suffer  most  and 
the  best  beloved  often  seem  to  die  of 
drought." 

Tobias  drew  closer  and  held  his  mother's 
spotless  robe. 

"How  very  horrid!"  said  Tobias,  "I'll  es- 
cape all  that  and  be  happy."  Mary  bent 
down  and  kissed  the  feet  of  her  son. 


THE   DREAMER  179 

"Only  if  you  fail,"  she  cried. 

"Fail  where,  how?  Oh,  it's  very  puz- 
zling," said  Tobias. 

"The  Gardener  will  tell  you  better  than 
I,"  she  said.  "It  is  a  great  favor  that  I  may 
see  you  for  this  moment  to  tell  you  that  my 
watchword  to  you  is  Patience.  I  dare  say 
no  more.  Patience  is  the  mother's  watch- 
word to  her  child." 

The  transparent  house  was  suddenly  suf- 
fused by  a  light  as  from  a  rising  sun.  A 
sound  was  heard  like  a  thousand  belled  caril- 
lon and  the  body  of  Tobias  grew  charged 
with  a  current  which  lifted  him  from  the 
ground  and  floated  him  down  the  avenue 
toward  what  seemed  to  be  a  big  sun.  He  had 
lost  his  mother,  but  this  Light  flooded  him 
so  completely  that  prayer  just  then  became 
like  the  cry  of  a  dreamer  and  his  mother 
seemed  a  ghost.  From  the  Light  came  a 
Voice,  and  in  the  sound  of  it  the  sorrows  of 
the  whole  world  were  lost.  Tobias  tried  to 
remember  all  the  things  which  mattered 


180  LOVE-ACRE 

most  to  him,  but  this  Light  absorbed  them 
and  the  Voice  drowned  them. 

"I  am  an  Elder  Brother,"  said  the  Voice. 
"I  am  one  of  the  Gardeners  in  Love- Acre. 
Like  you,  I  have  been  a  traveller  and  have 
sinned  and  sown  and  reaped  in  the  World- 
Acre  and  again  in  Love- Acre,  for  there  is 
little  difference  here  and  there.  You  have 
loved  and  suffered  and  so  have  unknow- 
ingly been  trained  as  a  Gardener  too.  The 
law  is,  love  and  suffer  till  you  die  the  death, 
and  through  your  living  death  you  will  see 
the  beginning  of  Eternal  love  and  life." 

An  exaltation  was  upon  the  soul  of  Tobias 
and  a  great  understanding  of  the  Light  and 
the  Voice. 

"I've  no  tools,"  said  Tobias  softly,  "and 
I  know  nothing." 

The  Light  burst  into  red  flame  and  back 
again  to  a  whiteness  which  almost  blinded 
him. 

"The  tools  are  human  hearts  and  needs," 
said  the  Voice.  "To  know  you  know  noth- 


THE    DREAMER  181 

ing  is  the  only  beginning  of  wisdom.  The 
real  teacher  is  always  the  humblest  pupil." 

"How  very  strange,"  said  Tobias.  "Is 
Love- Acre  a  school  after  all?" 

"It  is  one  of  the  seeding-grounds  of  the 
Greater  Worlds,"  said  the  Voice.  "It  has 
need  of  gardeners,  for  it  is  full  of  weeds. 
Many  of  the  seeds  brought  from  the  World- 
Acre  prove  to  be  weeds." 

"I'm  used  to  weeding,"  said  Tobias. 

The  Light  flashed  into  purple  and  white 
as  Tobias  thought  of  his  acre  of  purple  and 
white  violets. 

"Some  weeds  here  excel  some  flowers  in 
the  World- Acre,"  said  the  Voice,  "but  here 
you  can  tell  at  once  which  must  be  saved 
for  the  greater  blossoming.  Come!"  The 
Light  flashed  down  the  long  avenue,  and  To- 
bias found  himself  near  a  large  water-lily 
pond  and  a  memory  stirred  him. 

"They'm  wonderful,"  he  said.  "Not  a 
pin's  space  between  their  white  faces." 

The   Light  grew  suddenly  murky  and 


182  LOVE-ACRE 

brown,  and  Tobias  felt  he  only  understood 
through  the  Voice. 

"From  sin  and  sorrow,  to  use  your  foolish 
earth  words,"  said  the  Voice,  "do  such  white 
things  grow.  Their  long  slimy  roots  are  in 
a  mud  such  as  no  earthly  gardener  woul3 
dare  to  use  even  for  manure.  In  Love- Acre 
the  very  dirt  is  the  promise  of  these  lovely 
flowers." 

The  Light  flashed  a  silver  brilliance  on  the 
pond. 

"How  can  we  know  these  things  if  we  are 
not  gardeners?"  asked  Tobias. 

"Everyone  has  to  become  a  gardener  in 
time,"  said  the  Voice.  "The  first  lesson  a 
gardener  must  learn  is  to  reject  nothing  and 
see  the  hidden  beauty  in  every  living  thing. 
The  Mother  and  the  Poet  are  idealists  be- 
cause they  see,  not  because  they  are  blind. 
Love  sees  very  clearly  always.  Till  the  Har- 
vest no  one  can  tell  what  is  worthy  or  un- 
worthy. Here  the  jealous,  the  glutton,  the 
adulterer,  the  gossip,  the  self-righteous,  the 


THE   DREAMER  183 

murderer,  and  the  miser  are  seen,  not  as 
the  ugly  stalk  in  the  slime,  but  as  the  lily 
which  has  been  forced  out  of  corruption 
into  beauty.  The  flower  is  the  reality  and 
the  mud  and  slimy  stalk  are  only  means  to 
the  floating  purity  and  peace  and  beauty. 
Good  gardeners  know  this  and  have  pa- 
tience." 

"Patience!"  cried  Tobias.  "That  is  my 
mother's  watchword.  Is  that  a  tool?" 

The  Light  flashed  into  orange  as  it  glowed 
over  the  earth  and  then  gleamed  into  yellow 
on  a  long  bank  of  wild  flowers. 

"Every  joyous  and  beautiful  thought  in 
the  World- Acre  produces  a  flower  here,  and 
every  jealous  and  selfish  thought  a  weed," 
said  the  Voice.  "The  gardeners  have  to  be 
very  busy.  Sometimes  they  have  no  rest  and 
nearly  faint." 

"There  are  more  weeds  than  flowers  on 
this  bank,"  said  Tobias. 

"Many  are  called  but  few  follow.  You 
must  follow,"  said  the  Voice. 


184  LOVE-ACRE 

"Where?"  asked  Tobias  tremblingly. 

"To  loss  and  shame  and  failure  and 
death,"  said  the  Voice.  "To  understand 
these  things  is  to  begin  to  love.  To  fail  is 
to  learn,  to  stumble  is  to  see,  and  to  die  is  to 
live." 

The  Light  broke  into  a  million  rays  and 
Tobias  covered  his  face.  He  felt  he  must 
be  quite  blind.  He  heard  the  Voice  almost 
in  darkness. 

"To  have  seen  this  Light  and  heard  my 
Voice,  the  Voice  of  one  once  crying  in  the 
wilderness  of  failure,  despair,  and  shame,  is 
to  be  called  to  the  work  of  a  Gardener.  No 
one  can  really  ever  hurt  you  but  yourself 
now,  but  the  price  for  this  vision  must  be 
paid  in  loneliness  and  shame.  The  Vision 
and  the  Knowledge  bring  more  and  not  less 
suffering.  Gardening  gives  understanding, 
nevertheless,  to  those  who  see  and  hear,  and 
this  makes  all  things  bearable.  One  who 
has  seen  and  heard  is  no  longer  only  a 
learner,  but  a  teacher,  even  in  his  failures. 


THE    DREAMER  185 

No  Gardener  made  worthy  to  touch  flowers 
condemns  or  destroys  anything,  but  uses  all 
things  for  the  Great  End." 

"Great  End!"  echoed  Tobias.  He  could 
scarcely  hear  his  own  voice. 

"The  Great  End  of  Joy,"  said  the  Voice. 
"In  the  World- Acre  you  use  Joy  too  little. 
It  is  a  tool  of  great  value.  The  drought 
here  is  often  caused  by  the  lack  of  vivid  and 
entrancing  joy  in  the  World- Acre  as  tor- 
rents of  rain,  destroying  many  flowers,  are 
caused  by  the  stupid  excess  of  folly  mortals 
call  pleasure.  Rapture  and  joy  are  the 
voices  of  the  soul,  even  more  than  pain,  but 
pain  is  the  outer  court  leading  to  joy.  The 
utter  joy  fulness  of  men  and  women,  grow- 
ing toward  perfection  in  the  World- Acre, 
uproots  weeds  here  as  a  wind  cleanses  the  air 
of  poisons." 

Suddenly  Tobias  felt  he  was  the  only  dark 
spot  anywhere,  though  he  was  bathed  out- 
wardly in  golden  light.  The  Voice  became 
deep  and  more  vibrant. 


186  LOVE-ACRE 

"The  voices  of  joy  make  the  worlds,"  said 
the  Voice,  "and  the  great  conquests  are  the 
Lights.  Love  is  the  Breath.  Become  a 
deep  Breath,  and  teach  the  World- Acre  the 
greater  Love  which  can  share  and  dare  not 
spare." 

Tobias  knelt  on  the  golden-colored 
ground,  and  the  prayer  of  an  humble  Gar- 
dener filled  the  air. 

"Give  me  the  understanding  heart  and  the 
healing  hands,"  he  cried.  "Use  me  as  thy 
tool  and  spare  no  plough  on  thy  furrows. 
Prune  me  to  the  uttermost  and  make  thy 
wild  vine  into  a  wine  for  the  thirst  of  men." 

Tobias  felt  Mary  his  mother  close  to  him, 
as  if  she  had  folded  his  hands  in  prayer,  as 
he  had  seen  Leah  do  to  his  stepbrothers  and 
sisters.  He  had  repeated  something  out  of 
his  mother's  heart  and  stood  up  smiling. 

Strange  galaxies  of  sunbeams  of  every 
color  were  in  the  air,  and  soft  elfin  whispers 
and  fairy  bells,  with  a  sound  of  happy  laugh- 
ter, was  the  Amen  to  his  prayer.  A  great 


THE    DREAMER  187 

peace  fell  upon  Tobias,  the  peace  which 
passes  all  the  knowledge  in  the  World- Acre. 

"This  is  not  exchangeable  for  a  diamond 

crown  or  even "  He  did  not  finish.  The 

Voice  thundered  and  the  lightning  played 
around  Tobias.  A  great  calm  followed  and 
a  little  ruby-colored  light  was  all  that  was 
left.  It  lit  up  a  long,  sweet-scented  bank  of 
flowers. 

"Apparently  there  is  not  a  single  weed  left 
here,"  said  Tobias,  pointing  to  a  bank  of 
what  seemed  to  be  Lad's  Love  and  Lassie's 
Delight.  The  Light  shone  in  a  fairy  blue 
and  white. 

"The  plants  here  are  full  of  promise," 
said  the  Voice.  "The  Gardeners  can  rest 
often  who  take  care  of  this  plot,  for  some  of 
the  loveliest  thought-seeds  from  the  World- 
Acre  produce  these.  Rapture  and  Joy  are 
hidden  in  their  petals."  The  Mothers  take 
care  of  this  plot  and  can  dream  and  rest 
more  than  the  others." 

The  Light  suddenly  flashed  dark  red  as 


188  LOVE-ACRE 

it  hung  over  a  morass  where  Love  lies  bleed- 
ing and  Love  in  a  Mist  seemed  scorched 
with  too  much  heat. 

"These  often  die  before  they  fully  flower," 
said  the  Voice.  "Passion,  the  great  forging 
power  of  human  life,  often  dries  up  before 
its  flowers  blossom  or  its  fruit  ripens." 

The  Light  flashed  into  the  shape  of  a  cross 
of  amber  and  lit  up  some  purple  and  white 
tendrils  climbing  round  what  seemed  waxen 
or  marble  pillars.  The  Voice  was  tender  and 
low. 

"These  are  the  crucified  loves  who  save 
others  though  they  cannot  save  themselves. 
These  are  they  who,  in  spite  of  tempests, 
show  nails  and  cross  as  signs." 

"How  strange,"  said  Tobias.  "It's  like 
conjuring,  in  a  manner  of  speaking." 

"It  is  the  sweetest  of  all  miracles,"  said 
the  Voice.  "To  save  through  losing  and  to 
grow  beautiful  through  sorrow.  Remember 
that  always,  little  brother.  No  one  can  be  a 
good  Gardener  who  does  not  understand  and 


THE    DREAMER  189 

follow  these  things.  The  tools  are  of  no  use 
except  in  the  hands  of  those  who  know  the 
big  secrets  of  the  soil  and  the  souls  of  the 
flowers.  The  wages  of  great  love  are  often 
loss  and  death,  but  these  are  only  names  to 
those  who  can  prune  and  weed  and  who  un- 
derstand fully  the  difference  between  seed- 
time and  harvest.  The  real  Gardener  knows 
there  is  no  loss  anywhere,  only  growth  and 
change  and  sometimes  delay  in  blossoming." 

The  Light  flickered  and  seemed  almost 
lost  for  a  moment,  but  at  last  feebly  showed 
long  lines  of  weeping  willows. 

"These  are  shading  those  who  are  resting 
till  the  anguished  cries  at  their  transplanting 
cease  in  the  World-Acre,"  said  the  Voice. 
"They  cannot  grow  fully  till  the  weeping 
ceases."  The  Voice  almost  became  a  sigh  as 
it  went  on.  "It  is  the  Gardener's  blight  and 
delays  many  beautiful  fruits  from  ripening 
as  well  as  trees  and  flowers.  The  wild  cries 
in  the  World- Acre  over  those  whose  work 
is  now  in  Love- Acre  sweep  like  a  cruel  wind 


190  LOVE-ACRE 

and  hinder  growth.  No  Joy  is  more  lovely 
to  a  trained  Gardener  here  than  that  over 
the  travellers  safely  crossing  from  Acre  to 
Acre  and  so  learning  perfection.  It  brings 
softness  and  peace  and  a  great  unfolding, 
as  the  sun  on  a  half -opened  rose.  The  grief 
of  one  mourning  without  hope  blasts  the 
young  plant  and  hinders  growth  in  both 


acres." 


"Is  no  one  really  ever  dead,  then?"  asked 
Tobias. 

"Not  to  a  real  Gardener,"  said  the  Voice. 
The  Light  grew  incandescent  and  still. 
"Sleep  and  death  are  twins,  like  Life  and 
Love.  Death  is  only  a  replanting  from  gar- 
den to  garden." 

"Wherever  is  the  Devil?"  suddenly  cried 
Tobias. 

The  Light  flamed  downward  and  upward 
and  sideways  and  the  Voice  had  in  it  a  sound 
of  laughter. 

"Only  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  fear,"  it 
said.  "No  true  Gardener  knows  fear,  be- 


THE    DREAMER  191 

cause  Love  and  Beauty  destroy  it  as  Light 
destroys  Darkness.  Half  the  sins  and  sor- 
rows of  the  World- Acre  would  shrivel  into 
nothingness  or  expand  into  Beauty  but  for 
Fear." 

"I  am  often  afraid,"  said  Tobias,  "so  I 
shall  be  but  a  poor  Gardener." 

"Courage  is  a  habit,"  said  the  Voice,  "an 
hourly  and  daily  habit.  Those  who  learn  it 
never  crawl  or  sacrifice  or  reject  or  condemn. 
They  glow  and  give  and  laugh  and  cast  aside 
the  old  with  the  same  reverence  that  they  ac- 
cept the  new.  It  is  a  foolish  Gardener  who 
despises  the  fallen  leaves  which  have  left  him 
the  flower  or  who  gathers  the  full  flower 
before  it  has  turned  into  fruit.  The  gibes 
of  men  or  the  witcheries  of  women  are  all  in 
order  to  the  Gardener,  who  accepts  sun- 
shine and  frost  as  he  accepts  summer  and 
winter.  To  dig  and  weed  and  hoe  beyond 
the  rules  of  the  gardening  books,  however 
old,  and  to  be  joyful  and  hopeful  in  all 
seasons  is  the  work  of  a  real  Gardener.  Re- 


192  LOVE-ACRE 

member  your  Vision  and  never  forget  that 
Freedom  and  Love  are  the  keys  of  the  Great 
Mansions  which  lie  far  beyond  the  World- 
Acres  and  the  Love- Acres. 

"Is  there  more  than  one  Love- Acre  then?'* 
asked  Tobias. 

The  Light  broke  into  a  million  stars. 

"No  Gardener's  wisdom  can  compass  it," 
said  the  Voice.  "You  are  a  beginner.  Your 
will  remains  free.  You  are  called,  but  need 
not  follow.  No  vision  alters  that.  The 
Light  you  have  seen  may  only  scorch  you, 
the  Voice  only  molest  you.  It  is  all  in  you. 
Beauty  calls  and  you  can  betray  her.  She 
beckons  and  you  can  follow.  Have  patience 
and  never  fail  her." 

"It  seems  unforgettable,"  said  Tobias 
softly. 

"So  seems  Love  to  the  Lover,"  said  the 
Voice.  "Memory  only  really  begins  in 
Love- Acre  when  Beauty  buds  and  the  Gar- 
deners are  ready." 


THE    DREAMER  193 

"Loveday!"  cried  Tobias,  and  a  fierce 
light  burnt  into  his  eyes. 

"She's  not  here,"  said  a  gentle  voice,  and 
Tobias  looked  into  the  anxious  face  of  Leah. 

"My  poor  Tobias,"  said  Leah. 

Tobias  sat  upright  and  rubbed  his  eyes. 
He  laughed  joyously. 

"Poor!"  he  cried.  "My  blessed  Life! 
Rich  as  two  lords  and  twice  blessed!  I 
could  fly  with  the  wonders  of  the  Vision." 

Leah  wrung  her  hands  and  burst  into 
tears. 

"What  are  you  crying  for?"  asked  To- 
bias. "All  the  secrets  of  the  gardener  and 
the  voices  and  the  lights  be  upon  me.  I'm 
some  happy  and  blest." 

"Oh!  the  doctor,"  she  muttered.  "He'm 
right.  It's  a  changeling." 

"Yes,"  said  Tobias.  "How  did  you 
know?  I've  seen  and  I've  heard  and  I'm  in 
a  maze  of  joy." 

He  told  her  his  dream.  He  told  it  so 
rapidly  and  happily  she  caught  the  infection 


194  LOVE-ACRE 

of  his  joy  and  held  his  hands  over  what  he 
called  "the  unspeakable  glory." 

"Everything  beside  it  be  a  dream,"  he 
said,  "or  a  fairy-tale.  That's  a  mountain  of 
truth  and  seems  beyond  even  a  mother's 
love." 

"Tobias,"  said  Leah  gently,  "what  of 
Loveday?  Did  the  dream-folk  say  nothing 
of  she?" 

His  face  became  serious. 

"How  very  strange,"  he  said.  "She  was 
never  forthcoming  in  words  or  in  flame  pic- 
tures either,  or,"  he  hesitated,  "in  my 
thoughts." 

"An  instrument  only,"  muttered  Leah. 
"A  tool,  sure  enough." 

"A  what?"  cried  Tobias.  "The  tools 
aren't  women.  You'm  a  foolish  maid, 
Leah." 

"They  know,  I  reckon,  and  we  can  but 
trust,"  said  Leah. 

"I  must  see  Loveday  at  once,"  said  To- 
bias, "and  tell  her."  He  looked  round  the 


THE    DREAMER  195 

room.  "Why  am  I  here?"  he  said.  "What's 
the  matter?" 

Leah  looked  into  the  eager  face.  Tobias 
had  evidently  no  recollection  of  the  previous 
night's  disaster. 

"You  fell  asleep  downstairs  and  we 
couldn't  waken  you,  so  we  carried  you  here 
and  undressed  you,  as  the  others  had  gone 
to  bed  and  I'd  ironing  to  do  and  stayed  up." 

He  drew  his  hand  across  his  forehead. 

"Where  was  I  last  night?"  he  asked. 

"With  Loveday,"  said  Leah. 

A  smile  broke  over  the  face  of  Tobias. 

"To  be  sure.  No  wonder  I  had  such  a 
lovely  dream,"  he  said.  "Surely  this  is  my 
first  day  at  the  dairy." 

"It's  only  six  yet,  Tobias,"  said  Leah. 
"Try  to  sleep  till  seven." 

"Sleep!"  he  cried.  "I've  slept  all  I  can, 
and  I  feel  like  a  g'eat  man  of  muscle  and 
nerve,  and  as  if  I  could  lift  a  world  on  my 
shoulders." 

"A  day  in  bed  would  do  you  good,"  she 


196  LOVE-ACRE 

said.  "You  was  fainting  with  tiredness  last 
night." 

He  suddenly  hit  the  bedclothes. 

"Gracious,"  he  cried,  "wasn't  it  last  night 
that  I  was  in  a  maze  of  rage  with  Bert  Tre- 
mayne?"  He  laughed.  "A  pack  of  fool- 
ishness," he  went  on.  "What  was  it  all 
about?  The  dream  have  drowned  it,  I 
reckon." 

Leah  came  close  to  the  bed  and  looked  at 
Tobias. 

"Let  me  send  word  you'll  go  to  work  to- 
morrow and  just  lie  there  for  the  day,"  she 
said.  "It's  better  so." 

"What  should  a  man  in  love  and  in  work 
do  lying  here  dreaming,"  he  cried.  "I  never 
felt  better  in  my  life.  I  feel  as  if  I'd  been 
swimming  in — in " 

Leah  sighed  as  she  finished  his  sentence 
for  him:  "Heavenly  waters,  I  suppose.  May 
it  bring  no  disaster,"  she  said. 

"By  all  the  signs  disaster  be  like  the  devil," 
said  Tobias  cheerily,  "only  in  we." 


THE   DREAMER  197 

"Devils  and  disasters  can  torment  and 
destroy,"  said  Leah. 

Tobias  jumped  out  of  bed  and  pulled 
aside  the  little  curtains.  The  room  was 
flooded  with  the  red  rays  of  a  lovely  May 
morning. 

"They  can't  destroy  Light,"  said  Tobias, 
"nor  yet  a  Voice." 


PART  VI 
THE   OUTCAST 


THE  OUTCAST 

IT  was  the  evening  of  Tobias  Trewid- 
den's  wedding  day.  It  might  have  been  the 
evening  of  his  funeral,  to  judge  by  the  faces 
of  the  little  group  assembled  in  the  Trewid- 
dens'  kitchen.  It  was  half -past  nine,  but 
Matthew  Trewidden  was  still  up.  He  sat 
with  folded  arms  near  the  fireplace,  and 
Mrs.  Trewidden,  opposite,  looked  at  him. 
Leah  was  moving  to  and  fro,  clearing  away 
what  she  called  the  remnants. 

"He's  a  damned  outcast,"  said  Matthew, 
"and  thank  God  he's  left  my  house-place 
and  the  village  for  good,  let  us  hope.  They 
could  never  have  faced  the  music  here." 

"Husht!"  said  Mrs.  Trewidden.  "He's 
your  son  after  all." 

Matthew  Trewidden  stared  at  his  wife. 

"Be  thankful  he  ain't  yours  too,  but  a  dead 
201 


202  LOVE-ACRE 

woman's  brat  as  she  can  never  weep  over. 
Poor  Mary  deserved  a  better  son  than  To- 
bias." 

His  face  softened  as  he  went  on.  "It's  no 
man's  part  to  sing  up  the  first  wife's  praises, 
but  Mary  were  the  peacemaker  of  this  vil- 
lage. Not  a  row  or  a  sore  heart  or  a  twisty- 
crosty  bit  of  confusion  anywhere  but  she 
would  be  called  to  put  it  right,  and  with  a 
flick  and  a  smile  enemies  was  friends  and  the 
crooked  was  put  straight." 

"Pity  but  what  she'd  lived,"  said  Mrs. 
Trewidden  curtly. 

"Don't  be  frosty,  Jane  Maria,"  said  Mr. 
Trewidden.  "She'd  her  points  and  you've 
yours.  Seven  cubs  like  Tobias  would  have 
turned  me  from  she  in  time,  I  reckon,  as  our 
healthy  little  crew  have  made  me  cosset  thee." 

Mrs.  Trewidden  folded  her  hands  and 
twiddled  her  thumbs  in  supreme  content. 

Leah  came  over  to  the  stove  and  poked 
the  fire. 

"Though  it's  July  there's  a  big  wind  up 


THE    OUTCAST  203 

and  a  moaning  in  the  air,"  she  said.  "The 
weather  be  hardening,  I  fancy." 

"I'm  in  a  boil  of  perspiration,"  said  Mat- 
thew Trewidden.  "It  was  a  wet  day  with  a 
new  moon  on  Sunday,  and  that  allus  means  a 
rainy  month.  It's  been  one  of  ill  omen  so 
far,  anyway.  I  thought  that  young  cub 
Tobias  was  going  to  settle  down  in  a  reason- 
able manner  after  all." 

"It's  beyond  my  understanding,"  said 
Leah  sadly.  "It's  going  to  break  my  heart 
in  the  end." 

"Bosh!"  said  Mr.  Trewidden.  "Hearts 
don't  break." 

"They  bulges  a  bit  after  each  blow,"  said 
Mrs.  Trewidden.  "Tobias  must  'ave  been 
took  with  a  sudden  qualm  and  frenzy,"  she 
went  on.  "Anything  might  befall  a  topsy- 
turvey  nature  like  his  be." 

"Begetting  a  child  and  murdering  it,  and 
then  jumping  to  marry  the  mother  to  save 
his  skin  and  forgetting  the  woman  he  was 
plighted  to  is  more  than  a  qualm  or  even  a 


204  LOVE-ACRE 

frenzy,"  said  Mr.  Trewidden.  "It's  just 
wickedness,  and  even  Leah  can't  deny  it." 

"He've  allus  been  a  bit  queer,"  said  Mrs. 
Trewidden  kindly.  "Seven  months'  chil- 
dren arn't  never  the  same  as  others,  I've 
heard.  It's  allus  a  toss  which  they  belongs 
to  have,  extra  good  luck  or  awful  disaster." 

"Why  the  devil  didn't  he  die?  He's  been 
always  a  thorn  in  our  flesh,  and  now  he's  a 
scourge,  in  a  manner  of  speaking,  as  well," 
said  Mr.  Trewidden. 

"He'm  so  very  lovable,"  almost  whispered 
Leah.  "To  me  he's  been  allus  a  little  child 
with  the  ghosts  of  a  man  and  a  woman  try- 
ing to  work  through  him." 

"Rats!"  said  Mr.  Trewidden.  "What  fan- 
tastical nonsense!  What  he've  done  now  be 
no  childishness,  anyway.  You  surely  don't 
uphold  it?" 

"No,"  said  Leah,  who  was  crying  softly 
into  her  apron.  "It's  as  clear  as  daylight,  I 
know,  but  something  must  have  dazed  him 
the  night  he  was  brought  in  f  ainty  and  ill." 


THE    OUTCAST  205 

"Iss,  very  likely,"  sneered  Mr.  Trewid- 
den.  "But  he'd  been  dazed  afore  that,  ac- 
cording to  the  age  of  the  child." 

Leah  blushed. 

"Oh!"  she  cried,  "I  could  have  sworn  he 
was  as  guileless  as  a  girl  and  too  full  of 
dreams  for  such  poor  doings  as  that." 

Mrs.  Trewidden  looked  at  her  husband 
and  laughed. 

"It's  the  unlikeliest  as  falls  the  lowest 
when  they  do  go  down,"  she  said.  "Them 
blue  eyes,  like  saucers,  looked  as  if  they'd  de- 
ceive no  one,  but  apparently  they  was  just 
aids  to  corruption.  Poor  Lovedayl" 

Leah  shuddered. 

"She  might  surely  have  saved  him,"  she 
said.  "He  loved  her  and  she  him.  It's  a 
great  mystery." 

"Saved  him?"  cried  Mr.  Trewidden. 
"She'd  have  to  have  started  at  birth,  then. 
I  think  she's  behaved  fine.  She  went  before 
the  magistrates  and  answered  like  a  good 
one.  I  thought  once  at  the  sight  of  Tobias 


206  LOVE-ACRE 

she  was  going  to  faint,  but  she  pulled  her- 
self well  together." 

"She'd  never  have  faced  the  talk  anyway," 
said  Mrs.  Trewidden,  "but  he  gave  her  no 
chance  about  that,  thanks  be,  when  he  con- 
fessed." 

"He  saved  his  skin,"  said  Mr.  Trewidden, 
"but  through  it  she've  been  delivered  from  a 
poor  marriage.  There  could  be  no  outlook 
more  beastly  than  to  be  wedded  to  a  dreamy 
coward  like  Tobias." 

Leah  put  down  a  saucepan  she  was  carry- 
ing. 

"Look!"  she  said.  "All  my  hopes  and 
longings  be  gone  in,  but  I  don't  believe  he's 
quite  as  bad  as  you  do  say." 

Mrs.  Trewidden  bent  forward. 

"If  he'd  been  your  own  child,  Leah,  and 
not  a  dream  child,  would  you  have  spoken 
to  him  again?" 

Leah  put  her  face  in  her  hands. 

"I  don't  know,"  she  cried.  "No  one,  I 
should  think,  could  refuse  the  child  of  their 


THE    OUTCAST  207 

body,  and  yet — oh!"  she  went  on  stammer- 
ingly,  "I  should  have  prayed  continually  to 
God  to  take  him  and  cleanse  him  from  his 
great  transgressions." 

"Sakes !"  said  Mrs.  Trewidden.  "To  look 
at  him  you'd  think  that  was  a  hopeless  task. 
He's  some  hardened." 

"That's  what  surprised  me  so,"  said  Leah. 
"He  wasn't  contrite  a  bit  and  never  seemed 
to  fret  over  Loveday.  That's  why  I'm  sure 
he  be  not  exactly.  I  tried  to  get  him  to  talk, 
but  he  always  turned  me  off  with  a  smile 
and  his  eyes  shone  more  than  ever,  but 
seemly  he  never  whistled  and  sang  as  he  be- 
longed." 

"You've  half  a  leaning  to  him  yet, 
Leah,"  said  Mrs.  Trewidden. 

"No,"  said  Leah.  "I've  only  the  love  and 
liking  of  what  I  thought  he  was,  just  as  I 
have  for  the  dream-child.  There's  no  excuse, 
I  know,  and  all  the  evil  and  ruin  be  before 
me  as  plain  as  that."  She  pointed  to  the 


'208  LOVE-ACRE 

open  window  where  the  wind  was  driving 
the  jasmine  against  the  panes. 

"He  was  always  an  alien,"  said  Matthew 
Trewidden,  "and  now  he  be  a  fair  outcast. 
The  neighbors  all  shun  him,  and  no  won- 
der." 

"He  might  have  swung,"  said  Mrs.  Tre- 
widden, "or  been  transported." 

"And  I  always  thought  of  him  as  a  leader 
of  men,"  said  Leah. 

"He  was  just  fitted  to  be  a  leader  of 
sheep,"  said  Mr.  Trewidden  bitterly,  "but 
Loveday  frustrated  his  calling.  What  a 
calf  of  a  lover  he  must  have  made."  He 
winked  at  his  wife.  "Spoon-meat  sort  of 
stuff  he'd  likely  say  to  her.  He'd  no  real 
manliness  in  his  make-up.  Why,  he  believed 
in  fairies  till  he  was  a  shepherd,  and  I've 
seen  him  handle  flowers  like  a  girl,  many 
a  time." 

"He  thought  they  had  souls,"  said  Leah 
softly. 


THE    OUTCAST  209 

The  man  and  woman  bent  forward 
simultaneously  and  laughed  loudly. 

"It  do  fairly  cheer  me  up  to  hear  such 
blither,"  said  Mr.  Trewidden,  "because  it 
makes  me  know  how  right  we  all  are  in  think- 
ing him  a  bit  daft.  We'll  hear  more  of  his 
doings  yet,  I  fancy,  but  thank  God  he's  in 
harness  at  last,  of  sorts,  for  marriage  be 
mostly  either  heaven  or  hell." 

"Or  purgatory,"  said  Leah. 

"What's  the  difference  between  hell  and 
purgatory?"  asked  Mrs.  Trewidden,  smiling. 

"One  you  can  get  out  of  and  one  you 
can't,"  said  Leah. 

"Marriage  be  no  purgatory,  then,"  said 
Mr.  Trewidden.  "It's  a  cage  mostly,  if  not 
a  prison,  and  it's  a  clever  bird  what  can  fly 
out  of  it."  He  beckoned  Leah  to  his  side 
and  spoke  more  genially.  "Here,  Leah! 
There  are  times  when  the  only  thing  to  do 
is  to  drink  yourself  a  bit  soft.  When  your 
eldest  son  escapes  the  rope  and  is  the  by- 
word of  the  village,  it's  not  the  time  to  be 


210  LOVE-ACRE 

too  fanciful.  Missis,  you  and  me  will  have 
a  fine  stoop  of  what  the  uplongs  call  white 
satin.  It'll  mind  us  of  our  wedding  night." 
He  laughed  coarsely. 

"We  generally  keep  it  for  funerals,"  said 
Mrs.  Trewidden,  "but  I  must  say  I'd  dearly 
like  a  noggin." 

"Leah  shall  have  her  fancy  drink  if  she'll 
go  and  fetch  the  lot,"  said  Mr.  Trewidden. 

"I  allus  leans  to  stone  ginger  with  just  a 
leak  of  gin  in  it,"  said  Leah. 

"Good!"  said  Mr.  Trewidden.  "Here's 
the  needful." 

He  slapped  his  hands  on  his  knees  as  Leah 
went  out. 

"Bring  a  bottle  of  good  Plymouth.  It'll 
keep,"  he.  said,  smiling  at  his  wife.  "We'll 
just  drink  ourselves  warm  and  cozie  and  go 
to  bed  and  forget  the  young  varmint  as  if 
he'd  never  existed.  I  mean  to  do  a  bit  of 
a  deal  with  old  Cocking  over  poor  Loveday. 
The  girl  'ave  had  a  nasty  time,  but  a  lucky 
miss.  I  shall  put  a  little  sum  I'd  saved  for 


THE    OUTCAST  211 

the  lad  into  the  savings  bank  for  Loveday. 
Perhaps  the  chaps  won't  fight  shy  of  her  if 
it  gets  wind  she've  a  bit  put  aside,  not  only 
for  a  rainy  day,  but  for  a  wedding  outfit." 

"It  do  put  a  mark  on  a  girl,  a  thing  like 
this  'ere,"  said  Mrs.  Trewidden. 

"Not  such  a  slur  as  marrying  a  fool,"  her 
husband  answered. 

Leah  put  on  her  hat  and  shawl  and  went 
to  the  "Lamb  and  Flag." 

When  she  had  gone  Mrs.  Trewidden  went 
upstairs. 

"I'll  tidy  myself  a  bit,"  she  said,  "and 
we'll  make  a  night  of  it  after  all." 

Matthew  Trewidden  stood  up,  and  as  he 
did  so  he  heard  a  knock  at  the  door.  He 
opened  it  and  Dr.  Rosewarne  walked  in. 

"Evening,  Trewidden,"  he  said.  "I  hope 
I  don't  intrude?" 

"Not  a  bit,  sir.    Glad  to  see  you." 

"I  expect  you're  not  feeling  quite  as  gay 
as  the  little  event  of  to-day  generally  finds 
people,"  said  the  kindly  old  man. 


212  LOVE-ACRE 

"You're  right,  sir.  We've  just  been  talk- 
ing it  over." 

The  doctor  sat  down. 

"Trewidden,"  he  said,  "there's  more  than 
meets  the  eye  in  this.  It  must  have  been  an 
old  love  affair.  Mr.  Carbines  has  just  been 
with  me,  and  he  says  he  remembers  lots  of 
little  things  while  Mathilda  was  in  his  ser- 
vice. He  says  that  even  when  Tobias 
was  shepherding  he  used  to  run  in  at  times 
and  that  he've  often  caught  the  two 
talking." 

"The  devil  they  did,"  said  Mr.  Trewidden. 
"Young  rip  1" 

"He's  a  God-fearing  kindly  man  is  Car- 
bines," said  the  doctor. 

"Never  heard  any  other,"  said  Trewidden, 
"and  she  be  noted  for  keeping  her  servants  a 
long  time.  She  said  to  my  missis  once,  'I  go 
on  the  plan  of  a  whip  in  one  hand  and  a 
sugar  stick  in  the  other,  and,  moreover,  when 
a  servant  breaks  things  and  lies  I  gives  her 
a  holiday,  as  it's  the  drudgery  telling  at 


THE    OUTCAST  213 

last.'  This  is  the  first  mishap  in  servant 
girls  she's  had." 

"It  has  upset  her  very  much,"  said  the  doc- 
tor, "and  in  fact  the  whole  affair  has  un- 
nerved them  both.  I've  just  been  to  see 
them,  and  he  surprised  me  with  a  very  gen- 
erous offer." 

Matthew  Trewidden  looked  at  the  doctor. 

"He's  a  misard  in  his  way,"  he  said. 
"He've  an  end  to  serve  if  he's  generous." 

"No,"  said  the  doctor,  "not  a  bit  of  it. 
It's  sheer  good  nature.  You  see,  they've  no 
children,  and  Mathilda  Jones,  as  you  know, 
is  an  orphan.  They  blame  themselves  that 
this  tragedy  ever  happened,  and  Mrs.  Car- 
bines said  she  ought  never  to  have  left  her 
alone  to  take  care  of  the  shop  or  let  her  out 
in  the  evenings." 

"She's  a  comely  girl,"  said  Mr.  Trewid- 
den, "but  seemly  aged  terrible  lately." 

"Well,  the  long  and  the  short  of  it  is," 
said  the  doctor,  "Mr.  Carbines  is  coming 
here  to-night  to  consult  you  as  to  the  best 


214,  LOVE-ACRE       . 

way  to  settle  a  little  nest  egg  on  the  poor 
girl.  He  doesn't  feel  it  wise  to  hand  it  over 
to  Tobias,  but  he  wants  to  place  a  matter 
of  fifty  pounds  in  the  bank  for  the  girl  her- 
self, in  case  Tobias  turns  out  a  poor  lot." 

Mr.  Trewidden  laughed. 

"He  can  bet  his  top  hat  on  that,"  he  said. 
"I  call  it  grand  of  him.  I've  often  made  a 
joke  of  his  constant  chapel-going  and 
thought  it  was  mainly  done  for  custom,  but 
I  see  it's  a  bit  of  the  real  article.  Tobias 
'ave  nothin'  but  what  he  earns,  except  twenty 
pounds  his  mother  had  laid  by,  and  I  kept  it 
for  the  cub  till  now.  He's  got  that  to-day 
with  a  silver  tea-pot.  His  stepmother  and 
Leah  between  them  have  bought  them  a  few 
sticks  of  furniture  and  got  some  house-linen 
at  the  sales." 

A  sharp  knock  at  the  door  was  answered 
by  Trewidden,  and  Mr.  Carbines  came  in. 
The  sight  of  him  made  Matthew  Trewid- 
den pull  down  his  waistcoat  and  glance  at 
his  rather  muddy  boots.  Mr.  Carbines  was 


THE    OUTCAST  215 

immaculate.  His  shirt  front  shone  as  well 
as  his  round  red  cheeks.  A  benevolent  smile 
beamed  all  over  his  face.  He  shook  hands 
with  Matthew  Trewidden  and  nodded  at  the 
doctor. 

"I've  told  Mr.  Trewidden,"  said  the  doc- 
tor. 

"Very  kind,  I'm  sure,"  said  Matthew. 
"More  than  the  young  rascals  deserve." 

"If  we  all  only  got  what  we  deserve,"  said 
Mr.  Carbines  devoutly,  "things  might  be 
very  horrid  for  many.  We  don't  always  reap 
what  we  sow." 

"It  depends  on  what  we  know  of  farm- 
ing, I  reckon,"  said  Matthew. 

Mrs.  Trewidden  came  downstairs  and 
looked  surprised  as  she  greeted  her  two 
guests. 

"Mathilda  and  Tobias  'ave  fairly  fell  on 
their  feet,"  explained  Mr.  Trewidden. 
"Here's  Mr.  Carbines  offering  fifty  pounds 
to  settle  on  Mathilda." 


216  LOVE-ACRE 

Mrs.  Trewidden  looked  sharply  at  the 
grocer. 

"That's  a  queer  punishment  for  a  maid  as 
have  gone  astray,"  she  said.  "An  invitation, 
I  call  it,  to  others  to  follow." 

The  doctor  spread  out  his  hands  protest- 
ingly. 

"No,  no,  Mrs.  Trewidden.  A  kind  heart 
and  a  childless  home,  isn't  it?"  He  turned 
to  Mr.  Carbines. 

"Exactly,"  said  the  grocer.  "In  fact/* 
with  an  air  of  patronage,  "had  the  young 
shaver  not  have  come  by  such  an  untimely 
end  I  believe  my  wife  would  have  wanted 
to  adopt  it,  but  you  see  we  had  no  suspicion. 
That  is  the  queer  part  of  it  all.  Mathilda 
was  as  cunning  about  that  as  she  was  be- 
fore the  magistrates  about  giving  the  name 
of  the  father  of  her  child." 

"If  I'd  been  Mathilda,"  said  Mrs. 
Trewidden,  "I  would  have  had  his  name 
broadcast  over  the  whole  village  long 
ago." 


THE   OUTCAST  217 

Mr.  Carbines  stared  at  his  shiny  boot  toes 
as  he  said  generously: 

"Tobias  owned  up  bravely,  I  thought.  He 
almost  won  my  respect  the  way  he  faced  his 
wrong-doing." 

"Just  a  brazen  devil,"  said  Mr.  Trewid- 
den.  "It's  a  pretty  perilous  place  for  any 
man  to  be  in  when  the  girl  he's  appeared 
mazy  over  is  on  one  side  of  him,  and  the 
mother  of  his  murdered  child  be  on  the  other, 
and  both  women  facing  each  other  like  cats 
at  bay." 

Mr.  Carbines  shivered. 

"It's  a  terrible  situation,"  he  said,  "and  a 
Christian  can  but  pity." 

Mr.  Trewidden  stared  at  Mr.  Carbines. 

"The  magistrates  and  the  police  don't  cot- 
ton to  such  feelings  at  times  like  that,"  he 
said,  "thanks  be.  Christianity,  if  that's  what 
you  mean,  have  got  to  be  suited  to  the  occa- 
sion. Tobias  be  a  fair  outcast  at  last  and 
serve  him  right." 

"An  outcast!"  cried  Mr.  Carbines. 


218  LOVE-ACRE 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  Trewidden,  as  the  door 
opened  and  Leah  came  in.  "We  shall  never 
willingly  look  on  his  face  again.  We 
thought  he  was  only  a  bit  mazy  as  a  child, 
but  he  seemed  mad  at  times  as  a  boy,  and 
now  the  slur  on  the  family  name  is  almost 
more  than  we  can  bear." 

Leah  had  curtsied  to  the  two  men  and 
walked  over  to  the  cupboard  with  the  bottle. 
The  doctor  remembered  his  last  conversation 
with  Leah,  and  said  gently,  as  she  turned 
towards  him. 

"Did  you  ever  see  any  real  signs  of  odd- 
ness  in  the  boy?" 

"Or  forthiness  with  females?"  asked  Mr. 
Trewidden. 

"I've  never  seen  him  with  any  girl  but 
Loveday,"  said  Leah,  "and  if  love  be  an 
oddness  he  was  odd  enough.  Nothing  else. 
His  baby  fancies  kept  him  quiet  as  a  child's 
sucker  does  other  children,  and  he  was  kind- 
ly to  everything  living." 

The  old  doctor  looked  keenly  at  Leah. 


THE    OUTCAST  219 

"Do  you  believe  the  child  was  his?" 

Mr.  Carbines  almost  laughed. 

"Whose  could  it  be  if  not?"  he  said.  "And 
why  should  Tobias  confess  if  there  was  a 
doubt?" 

Mr.  Trewidden  dismissed  the  matter  with 
a  wave  of  his  hand  and  Mrs.  Trewidden 
sighed  plaintively. 

"There  ain't  a  doubt,"  said  Leah  slowly. 
"Who  loves  him  now  loves  him  in  the  face 
of  his  sin  and  shame." 

"It  is  a  little  in  that  spirit,"  said  Mr.  Car- 
bines gently,  "that  I've  come  here  to-night. 
Let  anyone  of  us  imagine  ourselves  in  Tre- 
widden's  place.  The  mere  thought  is  de- 
pressing. He  must  be  almost  too  miserable 
to  live,  even  if  he  loves  the  girl  he  has  mar- 
ried." He  sighed  deeply.  "He's  not  un- 
happy?" 

"No,"  said  Leah.  "That's  the  strange 
part  in  it  all.  That  is  what  makes  me  know 
his  brain-piece  be  a  bit  wanting.  He  don't 
look  cowed  a  bit.  He  put  Mathilda's  wrap 


220  LOVE-ACRE 

on  her  as  if  she  was  snow  and  would  melt, 
and  there  was  no  side  glances  at  neighbors 
nor  nothing.  It  was  just  as  if  he'd  done 
his  simple  duty  to  all  and  everyone." 

"What  does  Loveday  say?"  asked  Mr. 
Carbines. 

"She'm  relieved,  I  think.  She  told  father 
she'd  allus  been  a  bit  scared  of  him  in  her 
heart,  though  she  thought  she  cared." 

"She's  a  level-headed  woman,  be  Love- 
day,"  said  Mrs.  Trewidden,  "and  no  whim- 
sies and  crotchets.  Tobias  would  have  driven 
her  bitter  in  time,  though." 

"And  she  him,"  said  Leah.  "He'll  allus 
be  a  man  to  himself,  and  an  orderly  life  be  a 
sort  of  nutshell  to  him.  He  can't  rightly 
move  in  it.  She's  a  woman  as  would  frus- 
trate him  for  having  a  dog,  if  a  crumble  got 
on  the  floor  through  it,  and  he's  one  as  seeks 
freedom  like  a  gull  the  sky." 

"If  a  man  once  puts  his  soul  into  the  hands 
of  his  wife,  freedom  is  only  a  name,"  said 
the  doctor. 


THE    OUTCAST  221 

"Tobias  would  'ave  had  to  shelter  his  soul 
in  Loveday's  hands,"  said  Leah,  "and 
I'm  not  sure  he  won't  do  that  even  out  of 
them." 

"Will  you  kindly  tell  Mathilda  that  we 
will  put  the  fifty  pounds  in  the  savings  bank 
for  her?"  asked  Mr.  Carbines.  "When  we 
hear  we'll  send  her  the  notes  in  a  registered 
envelope  and  she  can  do  as  she  likes  about 
telling  Tobias." 

"Why  don't  you  write  to  her  yourself, 
Mr.  Carbines?"  said  Mrs.  Trewidden. 
"She'd  dearly  like  to  have  a  letter  from  you, 
I'm  sure." 

Mr.  Carbines  put  his  finger  inside  his  shirt 
collar.  It  seemed  a  little  tight,  for  his  face 
was  flushed. 

"I  want  to  spare  her,"  he  said.  "She  must 
feel  it  all  a  disgrace,  and  I  don't  want  to 
rub  it  in." 

"You'm  a  real  gentleman,"  said  Mrs.  Tre- 
widden. 

The  doctor  was  speculating  in  his  usual 


222  LOVE-ACRE 

way  on  men  and  things.  He  looked  at  him 
searchingly,  hut  said  in  a  level  tone : 

"You're  evidently  a  father  at  heart,  Mr. 
Carbines." 

Mr.  Carbines  coughed,  smiled,  and  bowed, 
and  the  two  men  went  out  together. 

"Now  I  call  that  a  stepping  in  of  Provi- 
dence itself,"  said  Mrs.  Trewidden. 

"My  gosh!"  said  Mr.  Trewidden.  "How 
mistaken  I've  been  in  Carbines!  Where's 
the  gin,  Leah!  Don't  be  sparey.  We'll 
never  have  a  doldrum  wedding  again." 

He  took  the  bottle  Leah  gave  him,  poured 
a  generous  helping  into  each  glass  and  filled 
the  two  up  with  hot  water.  Leah  had  hers 
with  her  ginger  beer.  The  three  sat  sip- 
ping silently  before  the  fire. 

"God  bless  'em,"  said  Leah  suddenly. 

There  was  a  long  silence. 

"When  we've  drunk  that  bottle,  and  we'll 
have  a  try  afore  we  goes  up  to  bed,"  said 
Matthew  Trewidden,  "Missis  and  me  may 
say  the  same.  Now  I  just  feel  like  cursing 


THE    OUTCAST  223 

Tobias  for  bringing  shame  on  our  heads. 
He  poured  out  more  of  the  colorless  fluid 
and  drank  it  nearly  neat,  but  filled  up  Mrs. 
Trewidden's  glass  with  water. 

"I'm  feeling  a  sort  of  mother  to  them  al- 
ready," mumbled  Mrs.  Trewidden.  "This 
'ere  spirit  takes  the  snarls  right  out  of  my 
system." 

"The  first  time  as  I  took  gin,"  said  Mr. 
Trewidden  meditatively,  "was  the  night  of 
my  first  wedding.  I've  favored  whiskey 
since." 

"I'm  going  to  bed,"  said  Leah,  "and  I'll 
just  pray  for  them." 

The  man  and  wife  laughed  hilariously. 

"You'll  have  to  do  it  for  we  too,"  said 
Mrs.  Trewidden.  "My  head  be  reel- 
ing." 

"I'm  ready  to  comfort  you,  Mother,"  said 
her  husband  thickly.  "I  ain't  felt  so  jolly 
since  I  heard  the  blasted  news." 

Leah's  cheeks  were  flushed  and  her  eyes 
flashing. 


224  LOVE-ACRE 

"The  dream,"  she  said,  "was  just  a  passil 
of  nonsense." 

"The  dream  1"  Mrs.  Trewidden  cried. 
"Why,  you  ain't  slept  yet,  Leah.  Off  with 
you  to  once'st.  Leave  Master  and  me 
alone." 

The  girl  went  out  and  they  heard  her 
stumbling  up  the  stairs. 

"My  God!  Missis!  It's  on  stuff  like  this 
that  a  man  sees  clear — clear  as  a  pike-staff." 

"What  do  you  see?"  asked  Mrs.  Trewid- 
den. 

"What  I  don't  mean  to  tell  no  woman," 
he  said,  "even  in  my  cups.  I  can  lay  a  man- 
snare  if  I've  even  a  mind  to.  But  it's  half 
a  riddle  to  me  yet.  Tobias  be  Mary's  son, 
after  all,  and  maybe  he's  got  a  bit  of  her 
nature  in  him.  He's  got  none  of  mine,  but 
that's  no  matter,  as  things  have  fallen  out. 
I'd  have  liked  my  eldest-born  to  have  been 
head  and  shoulders  above  other  men,  but  we 
can't  pick  and  choose."  He  lolled  over  to 
the  chair  where  his  wife  sat  and  grinned  at 


THE    OUTCAST  225 

her.  "Give  us  a  kiss,  old  dear.  Perhaps 
it'll  take  the  flavor  of  this  day's  job  out  of 
my  teeth."  He  held  up  her  head  and  kissed 
her,  almost  falling  over  her  as  he  did  so. 

"Matthew!"  Mrs.  Trewidden  slobbered, 
"you  be  fairly  drunk." 

"Come  up  and  kiss  me  sober,"  leered  her 
husband.  "I'm  as  fit  as  a  fiddle,  after  all, 
on  my  eldest  son's  wedding-night." 

They  rolled  upstairs,  and  Leah,  on  her 
knees  as  she  heard  the  bedroom  door  bang, 
sobbed  out,  "St.  Patrick,  St.  Patrick,  what 
can  it  all  mean?" 


PART  VII 
THE    PILGRIM 


THE   PILGRIM 

TOBIAS  TREWIDDEN  was  dying.  The 
young  Irish  doctor,  who  had  just  bought 
the  practice  in  Venvin  village,  heard  of  him 
for  the  first  time  from  a  carrier  who  had 
brought  him  a  stock  of  bottles  and  a  note 
from  the  invalid  asking  him  to  come  and 
see  him  as  soon  as  possible. 

"They  say  he  do  look  like  a  living  corpse," 
said  the  carrier. 

"Has  he  no  relations?"  asked  Dr.  Bligh. 

The  carrier  laughed  as  he  rolled  his  to- 
bacco in  his  palms. 

"He  don't  belong  to  we  at  all,"  he  said, 
"though  his  misdoings  hang  fast  around  his 
neck,  even  here  as  well  as  thirty  mile  off." 

"No  friends,"  muttered  the  doctor.  "Does 
he  live  alone?" 

"Except  for  cats  and  such,"  said  the  man. 
229 


230  LOVE-ACRE 

"He's  all  to  himself  and  has  the  look  of 
one  lost  to  the  world.  You  see,"  he  went 
on  in  a  half  whisper,  "he's  like  a  man  ill 
whisht,  sure  enough.  A  power  of  evil  fol- 
lows wherever  his  shadow  do  fall.  Everyone 
be  scared  of  he." 

"But  if  he's  ill  and  dying  someone  must 
surely  see  to  him,"  said  Dr.  Bligh. 

The  carrier  shielded  his  pipe  with  one 
hand  as  he  lighted  it. 

"No  neighbor  for  miles  round  would  come 
nigh  him  living  or  dying,"  he  said,  "for  fear 
of  hell  letting  loose  more  than  could  be  cap- 
tured again.  He'm  ready  made  for  the 
place,  having  tried  to  send  two  there  already. 
He  only  needs  a  push  and  he'll  be  home. 
You  won't  risk  going,  will  you,  doctor?" 

"Of  course  I  shall  go  to  him  at  once,"  said 
Dr.  Bligh.  "I  expect  it's  all  superstition!" 

The  carrier  jumped  on  to  his  wagon  and 
took  the  reins  in  his  hands. 

"Not  at  all,"  he  said.  "We  Cornish  know 
the  difference  between  that  and  this.  The 


THE    PILGRIM  231 

screams  of  his  wife  afore  the  poor  thing  died 
and  the  murder  of  his  child,  to  say  nothing 
of  other  horrible  things  rightly  put  to  his 
account,  ain't  no  superstitions  but  evil  deeds. 
He'm  a  mortal  pestilence,  in  a  manner  of 
speaking." 

"Where  does  he  live?"  asked  the  doctor  as 
the  man  prepared  to  go. 

"On  the  moors  beyond  the  Giant's  Crag," 
answered  the  carrier.  "He  be  far  from 
human  habitation  and  makes  use  of  spells 
and  such.  Tom  Andrew  saw  him  once 
praying  by  the  Eagle's  nest,  unobserved,  as 
he  thought,  and  he  was  waving  his  arms  like 
a  scarecrow,  at  least  that's  what  Tom 
thought,  but  it  might  have  been  his  shadow 
on  the  white  wall  close  by,  as  Tom's  lantern 
shed  its  light  on  the  wizard.  Anyway,  I'll 
own  I'm  scared  of  him,  and  I'd  sooner  carry 
goods  for  a  twelve-month  for  nothing  than 
minister  to  he  for  diamond  studs  and  a  for- 
tune." 

Ernest  Bligh  was  interested.    His  medi- 


232  LOVE-ACRE 

cal  career,  short  as  it  had  been,  had  proved 
to  him  that  the  complexities  of  human  na- 
ture defied  the  hard  and  fast  dictates  of 
either  science  or  religion.  He  had  formed  a 
habit  of  believing  no  evil  report  or  repeating 
it. 

That  same  afternoon  he  cycled  over  to 
Tobias  Trewidden's  little  cottage  and 
knocked  at  the  door.  As  there  was  no  an- 
swer he  lifted  the  latch.  A  tall,  thin  man 
was  fast  asleep  in  a  chair  with  his  head  on 
his  folded  arms  which  were  spread  out  on 
the  big  wooden  table.  A  small  black  cat 
was  asleep  across  his  neck.  Dr.  Bligh  shut 
the  door  softly  and  looked  round  the  room. 
It  was  very  bare  and  by  the  open  fireless 
grate  were  empty  hampers.  He  had  no  time 
to  examine  further  for  suddenly  Tobias 
Trewidden  raised  his  head  and  the  cat  arched 
herself  and  sprang  to  the  ground. 

"Good-morning,"  said  Dr.  Bligh,  "y°u 
sent  for  me  to-day." 

Tobias  Trewidden  stood  up  and  the  quick 


THE   PILGRIM  233 

eyes  of  Ernest  Bligh  saw  that  the  man  was 
doomed.  The  body  was  almost  fleshless  and 
the  clear  blue  eyes  had  sunk  far  into  the 
head.  He  held  out  a  bony  hand  to  the  doc- 
tor. 

"Thank  you,  sir,"  said  Tobias. 

"I  came  as  soon  as  possible  after  you 
wrote,"  said  the  doctor,  as  Tobias  pointed 
to  a  chair. 

"You're  welcome,  I'm  sure,"  said  Tobias. 
"The  rages  of  coughing  be  most  beyond 
bearing  at  times.  The  earthly  tabernacle  be 
breaking  up  fast." 

The  cat  jumped  on  the  doctor's  knees, 
doubled  up  her  front  paws,  and  gazed  into 
the  empty  grate.  Tobias  smiled. 

"They'm  forthy,"  he  said.  "They  fear  no 
one.  Kindness  be  all  they've  reckoned  with 
for  generations.  I've  trained  them  in  the 
ways  of  the  spirit." 

"Good  gracious !"  said  Dr.  Bligh  critically 
eyeing  Tobias.  His  short  sojourn  in  the 
West  had  taught  him  already  that  mysticism 


234  LOVE-ACRE 

was  compatible  with  common  sense  and  su- 
perstition worth  serious  study,  in  order  to 
find  its  substratum  of  scientific  truth.  When, 
however,  Tobias  Trewidden  began  to  talk 
about  his  cat  as  if  it  were  a  mortal  possessing 
a  soul,  he  began  to  observe  him  more  keenly. 
Perhaps,  after  all,  the  enemies  of  this  in- 
valid were  right.  Poisons  in  the  blood  made 
fantastic  havoc  in  a  sensitive  brain,  and  the 
eyes  showed  that  this  man  was  not  of  the 
average  type.  It  might  be  a  case  worth 
noting.  As  he  stroked  the  cat  on  his  knees 
he  said  thoughtfully: 

"Human  beings  are  in  the  rough  as  yet,  but 
even  then  there's  a  great  gap  between  them 
and  the  dumb  beasts.  You  can't  prove  to 
me,  for  instance,  that  the  kindness  of  a  dog 
could  be  so  trained  that  he'd  spare  a  rat." 

"Iss!  I  can!"  cried  Tobias.  "I've  taught 
a  terrier-pup  to  play  with  rats  so  that  when 
he  grew  up  he'd  not  kill  them,  and  many  a 
friendship  I've  watched  as  close  as  a  dog 
and  a  cat  can  have  at  times.  It  'ave  occu- 


THE    PILGRIM  235 

pied  me  for  years  watching  and  tending  ani- 
mals, for  they've  been  my  only  companions 
for  a  long  time.  I've  put  down  in  a  book 
there,"  pointing  to  a  shelf  where  a  few  odd 
things  were  lying,  "what  I've  come  across  in 
the  way  of  friendliness  between  they  as  be 
reckoned  enemies.  It  'ave  occupied  me  most 
of  my  time  these  last  three  years,  but  lately 
I've  put  them  to  sleep,  for  fear  later  they 
ever  fell  into  human  hands." 

Dr.  Bligh  instinctively  glanced  at  the 
long,  tapering  fingers  of  the  cat's  owner  as 
he  stroked  her  head.  Tobias  caught  the 
look. 

"Mine  be  mostly  claws  now,"  he  said,  smil- 
ing, "and  so  be  safer,  in  a  manner  of  speak- 
ing. Animals  be  real  gentry  with  their 
immortal  souls  unhurt,"  he  added  thought- 
fully. 

Dr.  Bligh  looked  into  the  mystical  eyes 
of  the  man  standing  near  him.  Serenity  and 
control  were  written  on  the  firm,  big  mouth 
and  unwrinkled  forehead.  His  slight  stoop 


236  LOVE-ACRE 

was  the  only  sign  of  age  and  that  was  more 
from  weakness  than  anything  else. 

"Is  this  cat  all  you  have  left?"  asked  the 
doctor,  for  want  of  something  to  say.  For 
answer  Tobias  pointed  to  a  little  white  box 
lined  with  soft  wool.  The  doctor  pointed 
an  interrogative  finger  at  the  cat's  back 
which  was  towards  him,  as  it  sat  on  his  knees 
and  then  he  glanced  towards  the  box. 

"Iss!"  answered  Tobias.  "I  can't  risk  it 
no  longer.  If  I  pass  and  she  be  left  to 
human  society,  may  be  a  bull-terrier  would 
finish  she,  or  someone  might  mix  her  up  with 
what  they  think  of  me  and  act  according 
to."  He  coughed  and  put  his  hand  to  his 
left  side. 

"Good  heavens!"  said  Dr.  Bligh,  "have 
you  no  one  you  can  trust  to  kill  a  cat?" 

"Not  in  a  seemly  way,"  said  Tobias.  "A 
cat  be  like  a  witch  and  knows  some  of  the 
secrets.  Fur  be  no  barrier  to  me,  and  the 
silence  have  been  a  voice  within  me  for  many 
years.  I  see  as  she  sees,  and  even  the  ad- 


THE    PILGRIM  237 

ders  have  made  the  Bible  more  of  an  open 
book  to  me  than  before.  It  was  through  the 
Scriptures  that  I  charmed  them  into  safety 
and  friendliness." 

"What  was  the  charm?"  asked  Dr.  Bligh 
smiling,  as  he  put  his  fingers  on  the  man's 
wrist. 

Tobias  grew  very  grave  as  he  said  solemn- 

iy- 

"Some  charms  would  be  broken  by  tell- 
ing. If  I  told  you,  unless  you  too  was  one 
with  us  in  understanding  of  the  great  se- 
crets, the  next  snake  as  I  got  would  sting 
me  and  rightly,  for  some  things  be  unfor- 
givable, even  with  reptiles." 

Dr.  Bligh  scarcely  heard  the  last  sentence. 
With  a  set  professional  face  he  took  his 
fingers  from  his  patient's  wrist,  and  undid 
the  button  of  the  flannel  shirt  as  the  man 
stroked  his  cat. 

"I'm  scarcely  good  enough  for  burial," 
said  Tobias  smiling.  "It's  a  cage  of  bones 
I've  been  for  long  enough  now." 


238  LOVE-ACRE 

"How  many  years  has  this  been  going 
on?"  asked  the  doctor. 

"A  matter  of  eight,"  he  said. 

Tobias  looked  calmly  into  the  doctor's 
eyes  as  he  asked,  "How  long  now?" 

For  a  moment  the  two  gazed  eye  to  eye. 
There  was  hesitation  in  the  medical  man's 
glance,  and  expectancy  in  the  look  Tobias 
fixed  upon  the  grave  face  before  him.  Dr. 
Bligh's  habit  with  his  patients  held  him 
silent  and  perplexed,  but  the  longing  in  the 
keen  blue  eyes  made  him  blurt  out  suddenly: 

"Not  many  days." 

"Thanks  be,"  said  Tobias  gently.  "I've 
not  sought  it  nor  yet  hurried  it,  but  if  the 
appointed  hour  be  near,  it's  a  real  savor  to 
my  spirit." 

Dr.  Bligh  stood  up  and  pushed  Tobias 
into  a  low  chair.  He  took  out  his  stetho- 
scope and  put  it  inside  the  open  shirt. 

"Ninety-nine,"  said  Tobias  smiling.  "I 
learnt  that  at  the  hospital  years  ago." 

"Thank  you,"  said  Dr.  Bligh,  after  he  had 


THE    PILGRIM  239 

finished  his  examination.  "You  must  go  to 
bed  at  once  and  be  nursed."  The  cat  was 
lying  full  length  on  the  arm  of  Tobias  and 
licking  his  bony  hand. 

"They've  all  done  that  since  they  was  but 
youngsters,"  said  Tobias  smiling  at  the  cat, 
"and  it's  a  comfortable  and  kindly  practice. 
They've  allus  licked  my  curls  too,  but  there's 
so  little  of  they  left  she  prefers  my  hand. 
Cats  be  so  soft  and  grateful." 

"Shall  I  destroy  her  for  you?"  asked  Dr. 
Bligh  kindly,  "or  will  you  give  her  to  me 
when — when " 

"Thank  you,  sir,"  said  Tobias.  "You 
mean  well,  I'm  sure,  but  it's  best  as  I  puts 
she  to  sleep,  as  Nature,  by  and  bye  will  put 
me.  She'd  find  me  wanting,  and  maybe  not 
understand,  and  if  I'm  a  bit  lonesome  at  the 
end  it  will  only  be  what  belongs  and  what 
I'm  used  to."  He  pointed  to  the  empty 
baskets  and  cages  as  he  went  on: 

"Them  captives  I've  had  in  there  be  re- 
leased afore  me,  for  the  same  reason  as  I'm 


240  LOVE-ACRE 

going  to  put  the  cat  to  rest.  Adders  and 
toads  and  rats  and  all  them  things  I  used 
to  reckon  only  as  vermin,  but  they've  minis- 
tered greatly  to  my  faith.  They'm  com- 
radely when  you  understand  their  ways,  and 
full  of  dignity  and  a  great  courage.  It's 
become  a  habit  to  me  to  try  and  live  as  they 
live  and  to  die  as  they  belong  to  die,  like 
children  falling  into  a  beautiful  sleep. 
They'm  likely  here  for  a  purpose,  and  it 
seemly  gets  frustrated  by  them  as  be  full 
of  lustful  pride,  because  they  can  chatter 
and  don't  wear  neither  fur  nor  feathers." 

Dr.  Bligh  turned  toward  the  door. 

"You  must  not  talk.  See !  How  it  brings 
on  the  cough.  Have  you  taken  any  physic 
for  it?" 

Tobias  smiled. 

"Physic  to  my  mind,"  he  said,  "be  a  passil 
of  nonsense.  I  follows  the  example  of  my 
cat,  and  as  she  eats  grass  if  she  be  sick  I 
eats  green  stuff  and  plenty  of  onions.  I 
reckon  a  man's  thoughts  be  his  best  physic 


THE    PILGRIM  241 

and  when  he  comes  to  die  his  gut  will  tell 
what  manner  of  life  he's  led  better  than  any- 
thing else.  My  beasts  have  taught  me  that 
too.  The  mothers  head  the  class  as  they 
give  most  of  theirselves  away." 

"I  will  call  again  to-morrow,"  said  Dr. 
Bligh  laughing,  "and  you  shall  tell  me  more 
of  your  fancies." 

"Thank  you  kindly,  sir.  What  do  I  owe 
you?" 

"Nothing  yet,"  said  the  doctor.  "So  far 
it's  I  who  owe  you  for  quite  a  pleasant  hour." 

Dr.  Bligh  rode  direct  to  the  Vicarage, 
hidden  among  lovely  trees  in  a  large  old 
garden. 

"Passon  be  out  but  missis  be  in,"  said  the 
old  cook-general  who  answered  the  door. 

"I  want  to  see  her,  please,"  said  Dr.  Bligh. 

"Surely!"  said  Wilmot.  "Come  forward. 
No  one  real  bad,  I  hope?"  added  the  woman 
as  she  looked  inquisitively  at  the  doctor. 
When  they  were  inside  the  library  Dr.  Bligh 
suddenly  turned  to  the  servant. 


242  LOVE-ACRE 

"Do  you  happen  to  know  a  man  callecf 
Tobias  Trewidden  ?"  he  asked. 

"Lordy!  Lordy!"  cried  Wilmot.  "Do 
you  mean  the  Wizard?" 

"Why  such  a  title?"  asked  the  doctor 
laughing. 

Wilmot's  face  was  solemn.  "His  house 
reeks  with  witch-craft,"  she  said.  "They  do 
say  that  the  Devil  himself  'ave  been  seen 
peering  out  of  his  chimney  more  nor  once." 

"He's  ill,"  said  Dr.  Bligh,  "in  fact  he's 
dying.  Someone  must  nurse  him  at  once. 

Wilmot  tossed  her  head. 

"Let  'en  rot,"  she  said.  "It's  tit  for  tat 
at  last,  anyway." 

With  this  cryptic  sentence  she  left  the 
room  to  find  her  mistress.  Mrs.  Hewett 
came  in  and  greeted  the  new  doctor  with  a 
smile. 

"I've  just  been  hearing  your  praises 
sung,"  she  said.  "Old  Nancy  Nanoledra 
declares  you've  cut  a  bit  out  of  her  head- 
piece and  altered  her  brains  so  that  she  can 


THE    PILGRIM  243 

add  up  and  write  a  long  letter  to  her  son  in 
America." 

Dr.  Bligh  laughed. 

"If  I  live  here  long  enough  I  shall  have  to 
open  my  own  headpiece,"  he  said,  "in  order 
to  make  room  for  all  the  wisdom  I  pick  up 
as  I  go  along.  I've  come  to-day  to  ask  you 
if  you  know  anything  of  a  man  called  To- 
bias Trewidden?" 

Mrs.  Hewett  sat  down  and  so  did  her 
visitor. 

"That  man,"  said  the  clergyman's  wife, 
"is  the  problem  of  this  village.  My  husband 
says  it  is  a  clear  case  of  possession  and  he 
forbids  me  to  go  near  him." 

"Possession!"  echoed  Dr.  Bligh.  "Auto- 
intoxication is  the  modern  name  for  that  sort 
of  thing."  He  smiled.  "Are  we  never  to 
get  out  of  the  devil's  clutches?" 

"Not  while  he  can  take  hold  of  men  like 
Tobias  Trewidden,"  said  Mrs.  Hewett  seri- 
ously. "He's  a  warning  to  us  all." 

"To  me  he  seems  the  most  harmless  con- 


244  LOVE-ACRE 

sumptive  I've  ever  treated,"  said  Dr.  Bligh. 
"He  interests  me  enormously.  A  little  re- 
ligiously touched,  I  grant  you,  but  that 
often  goes  with  the  disease.  He's  near  the 
end,  anyway,  very  near,  and  I  don't  think 
it  possible  he  can  live  more  than  a  few 
hours." 

"Well,  it  will  be  a  great  danger  gone," 
said  Mrs.  Hewett,  "but  he  may  live  on. 
Nothing,  they  say,  is  impossible  to  Tobias 
Trewidden.  It  almost  seems  as  if  evil-do- 
ing, as  well  as  good  works,  could  produce 
miracles." 

"What  on  earth  has  the  man  done,"  asked 
Dr.  Bligh,  "that  people  seem  so  against 
him?" 

"Everything,"  said  Mrs.  Hewett,  "accord- 
ing to  report.  It  appears  he  was  always  un- 
like anyone  else  from  a  small  boy.  He's  a 
desperate  character." 

"Name  the  worst  crime  he's  committed," 
said  the  doctor  smiling.  "I'll  promise  not  to 


THE    PILGRIM  245 

jump  out  of  my  chair.  To  me  he  seems  so 
very  harmless." 

It  was  some  time  before  Mrs.  Hewett 
spoke.  She  wiped  her  thin  lips  once  or  twice 
with  her  handkerchief,  took  off  her  ruby 
ring,  and  put  it  on  again. 

"They  say  he  practises  black  magic,  for 
one  thing,"  she  said  at  last.  She  spoke  in 
a  half  whisper,  looking  towards  the  door. 
"Incantations  and  horrible  things  he  does, 
they  say,  though  I  must  confess  I  don't 
understand  what  it  all  means,  but  I  know  it 
is  against  the  Bible  teaching  and  very  dan- 
gerous." 

"Is  that  all?"  asked  the  doctor. 

"No,"  said  Mrs.  Hewett.  "He  is  sup- 
posed to  have  killed  his  own  child  and  there 
have  been  dreadful  rumors  about  a  woman 
he  lived  with  who  was  apparently  tortured 
to  death.  None  of  us  know  the  real  truth, 
as  he's  never  confided  in  anyone,  but  the 
evidence  is  all  against  him." 

"But  the  law,"  gasped  the  doctor.    "Sure- 


246  LOVE-ACRE 

ly  no  one  can  do  such  things  with  impunity, 
even  here.  I  feel  convinced  it's  a  great  deal 
scandal,  owing  to  the  lack  in  this  village  of 
adequate  dramatic  entertainment." 

Mrs.  Hewett  stared  fixedly  at  the  doctor, 
who  was  smiling. 

"Where  there's " 

"Excuse  me,"  interrupted  Dr.  Bligh,  "in 
my  limited  experience  I've  more  often  than 
not  seen  flame  without  any  smoke,  and  if  I 
can  trust  my  intuitions  at  all  I  believe  this 
is  a  case  in  point.  However,  at  this  moment 
the  man's  sins  are  not  the  urgent  matter. 
He  is  dying,  and  I  want  a  nurse  for  him  at 
once.  Can  you  tell  me  where  I  can  get 
one?" 

Mrs.  Hewett  wrinkled  her  brows.  She 
was  distinctly  annoyed. 

"This  is  a  Christian  village,"  she  said 
severely. 

"So  I  understand,"  answered  Dr.  Bligh 
blandly.  "That  is  why  I  am  making  my  re- 
quest." 


THE    PILGRIM  247 

"You  won't  find  a  God-fearing  man  or 
woman  in  it  to  stay  alone  a  whole  night  with 
Tobias  Trewidden,"  she  said. 

"Good  God!"  cried  Dr.  Bligh.  "Not 
one?" 

"Well,  perhaps  one,"  said  Mrs.  Hewett 
suddenly.  "There's  Biddy  Beaver,  the  net- 
mender.  She's  very  deaf  and  it  might  have 
heen  too  tedious  a  job  for  the  neighbors  to 
have  told  her  all  that  is  said  about  Tobias 
Trewidden.  Deaf  people  escape  many 
things,  and  she's  a  kindly  creature.  I  will 
write  down  her  address  but  she  lives  beyond 
the  cemetery." 

Dr.  Bligh  took  the  piece  of  paper, 
thanked  Mrs.  Hewett  and  went  away.  He 
did  not  go  direct  to  Biddy.  Instead  he  went 
to  a  widow  he  had  treated  free  of  charge 
for  a  serious  tumor,  and  whose  gratitude 
had  been  expressed  many  times  by  saying 
that  if  she  could  not  pay  him  in  hake  she 
would  in  herring.  "Now;"  he  said  to  him- 
self, "I'll  claim  the  herring." 


248  LOVE-ACRE 

Widow  Rasselas  was  washing.  As  the 
doctor  entered  the  back  gate  her  elbows,  in 
the  "wash-tray,"  were  covered  with  soap- 
suds. She  wiped  her  arms  and  led  the  way 
into  her  cottage. 

"It's  lonesome  sometimes,  Doctor,"  she 
said,  "and  I  washes  just  for  washin's  sake 
to  keep  me  company." 

"I've  got  a  cure  for  loneliness,"  said  Dr. 
Bligh.  "I've  a  patient  sick,  dying  in  fact. 
Will  you  nurse  him  for  me?" 

"Iss!"  said  Widow  Rasselas.  "I  dearly 
love  the  sick  and  feeble." 

"It's  Tobias  Trewidden,"  he  said. 

"He?"  she  shrieked  in  a  high  interroga- 
tive. "My  blessed  Father  in  Heaven!" 

"Are  you  afraid  of  death?"  asked  the  doc- 
tor. 

"Death!"  she  echoed.  "Not  me!  I'm 
more  used  to  corpses,  in  a  manner  of  speak- 
ing, than  gentry,  but  I'd  never  venture  near 
he." 

"I  should  have  thought  a  good  mother  like 


THE    PILGRIM  249 

you  could  venture  anywhere,"  said  Dr. 
Bligh.  "To  my  mind  he's  a  tender-hearted 
man." 

"He've  been  a  woman-tamer  so  I've 
heard,"  said  Widow  Rasselas,  with  wide 
open  eyes,  "and  he  be  as  bitter  as  lemon- 
rind  over  all  of  we.  My  man,  afore  he  died, 
said  as  only  men  among  themselves  could 
reckon  up  what  a  passil  of  women  he  must 
have  ruined  when  he  was  young  and  afore 
he  came  to  live  here,  or  the  talk  would  never 
be  so  fierce  against  him." 

"He's  dying,"  said  Dr.  Bligh. 

"Well,"  said  Widow  Rasselas  solemnly, 
"he  can't  never  go  to  heaven,  thanks  be." 

"Why  not?"  asked  Dr.  Bligh. 

"Heaven,"  said  the  widow  emphatically, 
"be  a  prepared  place  for  prepared  people. 
Tobias  Trewidden  will  surely  be  in  hell  and 
safe  from  all  of  we  and  we  from  him." 

Dr.  Bligh  looked  into  the  woman's  face. 

"He's  there  now,"  he  said,  "here,  in  this 
godly  village." 


250  LOVE-ACRE 

"Serve  him  right  if  he  is,"  said  Widow 
Rasselas.  "It's  his  own  fault,"  she  snapped. 
"According  to  hearsay  no  decent  body  can 
tell  up  his  wicked  actions.  It's  them  tales  as 
'ave  scared  even  youngsters  away  from  his 
cottage." 

"Rubbish!"  said  Dr.  Bligh.  "The  man's 
face  gives  the  lie  to  all  these  idiotic  tales." 

"Thanks  be,"  said  Widow  Rasselas,  "I've 
never  looked  upon  his  countenance  but  once, 
and  then  not  to  know  exactly  whether  he 
was  pock-marked  or  had  a  beard."  She 
tapped  her  forehead  suddenly  as  she  went 
on.  "Yes,  come  to  think  of  it  though,  he 
had  a  beard  when  he  first  come  here  to  live. 
My  Annie  Lizzie,  what  be  buried  these  five 
years  now,  made  her  father  laugh  some 
hearty  when  he  was  lying  in  bed  ill  with  the 
miner's  complaint.  'There's  a  man  come  to 
live  in  Dickie  Gibbart's  cottage  that  have 
got  fur  all  over  his  face,'  she  said." 

Widow  Rasselas  came  closer  to  the  doctor 
and  ended  in  a  whisper,  "I'd  not  be  fright- 


THE    PILGRIM  251 

ened  but  what  he's  got  the  cloven  foot,  too, 
and  the  stump  of  a  tail.  Sin  be  forgivable, 
but  witch-craft  'ave  always  to  be  shunned 
the  same  as  poison." 

Dr.  Bligh  put  his  hand  on  the  door-latch 
as  he  prepared  to  go. 

"How  many  chapels,"  he  asked,  "are  there 
in  this  village?" 

"Three,"  answered  Widow  Rasselas,  "so 
we  know  of  the  doctrine." 

"Good-bye,"  said  the  doctor.  "I'm  going 
home  without  either  herring  or  hake.  I 
came  to  ask  you  for  the  one  you  promised 
long  ago  and  you've  refused  it." 

Widow  Rasselas  laughed  happily. 

"Why  you  never  reminded  me,"  she  said. 
"But  as  it  happens  I've  a  bit  of  newly  caught 
hake  in  the  larder,  so  please  accept  of  it." 

With  self  satisfaction  written  all  over  her 
sunburnt  face  she  brought  a  small  parcel 
from  the  scullery  and  put  it  in  the  basket 
which  was  tied  on  to  the  doctor's  bicycle. 
As  he  rode  away  he  called  out  gaily.  "If  it 


252  LOVE-ACRE 

makes  me  sick,  Mrs.  Rasselas,  I  won't  put  it 
down  to  witch-craft  anyway." 

She  shook  her  head  drearily  as  she  went 
back  to  her  cottage. 

"You  can't  touch  dung  and  remain  un- 
defiled,"  she  murmured  as  she  went  into  her 
cottage  again.  She  was  sure  she  had  come 
across  that  in  the  Scriptures. 

Dr.  Bligh  made  his  way  to  Biddy  Beaver's 
cottage.  She  was  mending  a  big  pilchard 
net  outside  her  door.  The  doctor  made  signs 
to  her  and  she  got  up  and  curtsied.  She 
handed  him  paper  and  a  pencil.  He  saw 
hope  for  his  cause  in  her  kindly,  wrinkled 
face  with  the  clear  brown  eyes,  which  seemed 
to  be  always  listening  for  what  the  ears  could 
not  catch.  He  wrote  down  what  he  wanted, 
and  watched  her  reading  it.  She  shook  her 
head. 

"He  'ave  the  evil  eye  they  do  say,"  she 
said.  "Bein'  unable  to  hear  I'd  be  afraid. 
Though  wanting  money  badly,  I  won't  un- 
dertake the  job." 


THE    PILGRIM  253 

"Three  shillings  a  day,"  wrote  Dr.  Bligh. 

She  read  the  paper,  smiled,  licked  her  lips 
slowly  and  then  said  eagerly. 

"For  double  I'll  favor  you." 

"To-night,"  he  wrote,  "at  seven,  I'll  be 
there  and  write  down  all  you  have  to  do.  It's 
very  simple,  and  if  he  can't  talk,  so  much  the 
better,  as  he  is  very  weak." 

Biddy  nodded  her  head  and  he  left  the 
cottage. 

Dr.  Bligh  happened  to  have  an  unusually 
busy  day.  Tired  out,  about  six  o'clock,  he 
entered  Tobias  Trewidden's  door. 

"To  bed  at  once,"  he  said,  as  he  realized 
what  his  patient  had  been  doing.  The  box 
with  the  wool  inside  had  gone  and  a  spade 
was  lying  on  the  floor. 

"I  never  thought  I  could  care  so  much, 
knowing  what  I  know,"  said  Tobias.  "She 
licked  my  hand  to  the  last.  I  put  her  to 
sleep  same  as  the  doctor  put  me  when  I'd 
the  head-fever.  I'd  kept  the  stuff  in  case 
I'd  ever  need  to  stop  the  violent  pain  again. 


254  LOVE-ACRE 

She'm  comfortable  now."  The  man's  eyes 
were  alight  with  passionate  eagerness. 
"There's  no  one  else  to  care,  and  it'll  be  a 
birthday  for  she  as  well  as  me.  No  one  won't 
be  able  to  maul  she  when  I'm  gone." 

"You  really  must  go  to  bed,"  said  Dr. 
Bligh  almost  sternly. 

Suddenly  a  thought  struck  him.  "You 
must  have  some  nourishment  at  once.  You 
can  scarcely  stand,"  he  said.  Tobias  stag- 
gered to  a  cupboard  and  took  out  a  large 
jug  and  drew  a  saucepan  from  a  shelf  near. 
He  lighted  a  small  oil-stove  and  put  the 
broth  on  the  flame. 

"The  leeks  are  all  cooked,"  he  said,  "and 
it  will  soon  be  ready.  I've  made  use  of  them 
for  gargles  and  supper  and  general  main- 
tenance for  weeks,  with  a  crust  of  bread 
and  some  milk."  . 

"Have  you  no  money?"  asked  Dr.  Bligh. 

The  dignified  simplicity  of  the  man  made 
the  doctor  sorry  he  had  spoken. 

"No,  none,"  said  Tobias.     "The  garden 


THE    PILGRIM  255 

suffices,  as  there  I've  all  I  need.  I've  never 
craved  nothin'  for  a  long  time.  A  few  pen- 
nies put  by  have  given  the  cat  and  me  milk 
and  the  last  went  yesterday."  He  poured 
out  the  strong-smelling  broth  into  a  basin 
as  the  doctor  pointed  to  the  staircase. 

"While  this  is  cooling,"  he  said,  "slip  into 
bed.  I've  brought  you  a  draught  and  we'll 
have  you  rubbed  by  someone  soon."  In  less 
than  ten  minutes  Dr.  Bligh  went  upstairs. 

"Sir,"  said  Tobias,  "it's  a  sweet  savor  to 
me  that  you  ain't  afraid  of  me  and  will  min- 
ister to  me  like  this  'ere." 

There  was  a  knock  at  the  door. 

"That's  Biddy  Beaver  come  to  sit  up  with 
you  all  night,"  said  Dr.  Bligh. 

Tobias  leaned  forward  suddenly. 

"A  woman,"  he  cried.  "In  God's  name 
what  next?" 

Dr.  Bligh  went  downstairs.  It  was  not 
Biddy.  As  he  opened  the  door  a  small  boy 
handed  him  a  piece  of  paper.  On  it  was 
written:  "A  little  thing  would  soon  capsize 


256  LOVE-ACRE 

Biddy,  the  money  would  be  ill  got.  No." 
The  boy  touched  his  cap  and  ran  off.  Dr. 
Bligh  hesitated  before  going  upstairs.  Then 
he  sprang  up  like  a  boy. 

"I  didn't  like  the  look  of  that  nurse,"  he 
said  smiling,  "so  she's  packed  off.  I'm  go- 
ing home  to  do  some  dispensing  and  I'll  re- 
turn till  the  morning.  Sleep  till  I  come." 

Tobias  felt  over  the  bed-clothes  and  then 
lay  back. 

"The  cat  was  allus  a  stand-by  at  twilight," 
he  said.  "She'm  well  on  the  journey  by  now 
and  knows  the  great  secrets.  Death  have  al- 
lus seemed  to  me  to  be  more  wondrous  than 
all  other  things  put  together." 

He  coughed,  and  Dr.  Bligh  held  out  his 
hand.  Tobias  took  it  and  said  in  a  hoarse 
whisper:  "You  might  be  one  of  they  dumb 
lot,  you're  so  understanding  and  kind,  sir, 
but  maybe  you've  not  heard  the  talk." 

"Damn  talk,"  said  Dr.  Bligh. 

Tobias  laughed. 

"No  swear  words  can  kill  it,"  he  said,  "for 


THE    PILGRIM  257 

it's  from  Genesis  to  Revelations  for  disaster. 
I'm  careless  of  it  now,  but  then  you  see  I'm 
dying  at  last.  I'd  dearly  love  to  know 
you're  a  match  for  it,  sir." 

"Take  this,"  said  Dr.  Bligh,  handing  To- 
bias a  cachet,  "and  sleep  till  I  come  back. 
I'll  leave  the  door  on  the  latch.  No  one  will 
disturb  you?" 

Tobias  smiled. 

"It's  as  still  as  a  grave  here,"  he  said, 
"and  so  very  beautiful.  Thank  you  kind- 
ly, sir." 

The  moon  was  rising  and  one  star  was  in 
the  sky  as  her  sentinel.  The  big  fuchsia  tree 
in  the  little  garden  did  service  as  a  yew-tree 
over  the  newly  turned  patch  where  Tobias 
had  buried  his  cat.  The  fuchsia  flower-bells 
swayed  in  the  southwest  wind.  Dr.  Bligh 
stopped  a  moment  to  listen  to  the  distant 
lapping  of  the  waves  on  the  seashore.  It 
was  early  September  and  the  sky  was  a  soft 
purple  and  gold. 

When  he  returned  he  found  Tobias  Tre- 


258  LOVE-ACRE 

widden  asleep.  He  put  his  fingers  gently 
on  the  man's  pulse  and  smiled.  If  Tobias 
looked  upon  Death  as  his  birthday,  it  was 
close  at  hand.  The  man  stirred,  turned 
round  his  head,  and  smiled  at  his  new  friend. 

"That  was  balm  to  my  spirit,"  said  To- 
bias, "and  the  sign  was  in  the  dream." 

"What  sign?"  asked  Dr.  Bligh,  again 
feeling  his  pulse. 

"The  sign  of  a  new  daybreak,"  he  said, 
"and  of  spirits  made  manifest.  The  lights 
were  so  wonderful."  Perspiration  had 
broken  out  on  his  face  and  a  sudden  radiance 
lighted  the  whole  countenance.  "Nothin* 
matters  now,"  he  went  on.  "It's  just  a  great 
understanding  and  a  loveliness." 

Dr.  Bligh  poured  out  some  liquid  food 
and  handed  it  to  Tobias. 

"You've  had  a  rough  time,"  he  said.  "No 
wonder  you  don't  dread  the  end." 

Tobias  laughed  softly. 

"What  sweetmeats  be  to  children,"  he  said, 
"and  kisses  to  maidens,  Death  be  to  me." 


THE    PILGRIM  259 

"What  began  aU  this?"  asked  Dr.  Bligh, 
pointing  to  his  patient's  chest. 

"Worritin',  I  reckon,  before  I'd  learnt 
how  to  make  use  of  the  ways  of  the  spirit," 
said  Tobias.  "It  sent  me  into  a  sleepless 
decline,  wrestlin'  with  more  than  principali- 
ties and  powers.  I'd  had  my  vision,  sure 
enough,  but  somehow,  like  a  mist  at  sea,  all 
was  hidden  from  my  eyes  in  misfortune." 

"Don't  talk  if  it  tires  you,"  said  Dr.  Bligh, 
opening  the  shirt  front,  as  Tobias  was 
breathing  heavily. 

The  patient  leaned  on  his  elbow. 

"It's  an  easement,"  he  said.  "I  miss  they 
dumb  lot.  I'd  often  talk  to  them  of  things 
they  understand  without  speech.  They 
seemed  to  know  all,  without  condemnation." 

"Was  it  a  woman?"  asked  Dr.  Bligh. 

"Seemly  a  passil  of  them,"  said  Tobias, 
"and  battalions  of  folk  seemed  to  be  whis- 
perin'  and  interferin'  too." 

The  doctor  eyed  Tobias  a  little  severely. 

"We  all  pay  for  our  wild  oats,"  he  said. 


260  LOVE-ACRE 

"I  suppose  they  had  something  to  go  on? 
People  generally  have." 

Tobias  coughed  till  he  could  scarcely 
speak,  and  then  went  on  slowly.  "It  fairly 
chokes  me  with  the  laughableness  of  that 
there,"  he  said.  "Excuse  me,  sir." 

Dr.  Bligh  was  curious  and  very  puzzled. 

"I'm  in  my  thirty-one,"  said  Tobias,  "and 
when  I  were  twenty  I  was  as  gay  as  a  robin 
on  the  bough.  I  began  as  a  shepherd-boy, 
and  it  was  then  I  learnt  some  of  the  great 
secrets.  I  went  afterward  as  a  milkman  and 
manager  to  a  cousin  as  was  a  farmer,  and 
it  was  on  the  very  first  day  of  my  work 
there  that  disaster  overcame  me.  I  was  in 
love  and  I'd  a  beautiful  girl  all  my  own." 
He  looked  keenly  at  the  doctor.  "If  I  eases 
my  chest  of  all  this  you  won't  mouth  it  in 
the  place,  sir,  will  you,  even  when  I'm  dead 
and  buried?  The  truth  would  maze  'em 
worse  than  the  lies  they've  built  up." 

"Not  a  word  to  a  soul,"  said  Dr.  Bligh. 
"It  may  help  you  to — to " 


THE    PILGRIM  261 

"Pass,"  said  Tobias  gently.  "So  it  may. 
I've  carried  it  close  for  eleven  years,  and 
they've  built  a  mountain  of  lies  on  what  they 
neither  knew  nor  could  understand  if  they 
did  know."  He  tried  to  sit  up,  but  had  to 
lie  back  again. 

"If  you've  anything  on  your  mind  or  re- 
morse about  something,"  said  the  doctor, 
"don't  hesitate  to  confess.  I'm  quite  safe 
and  have  heard  too  many  strange  things 
in  my  life  to  be  either  shocked  or 
shaken." 

After  another  fit  of  coughing  Tobias  went 
on. 

"There's  nothin'  in  that  line,"  he  said.  "I 
can  face  the  Light  and  the  Voice,  as  a  child 
its  mother.  The  only  remorse  I  have  is, 
perhaps,  that  I've  made  too  much  use  of  the 
Gospels,  and  so  got  more  kicks  than  thanks 
for  following  the  things  I  fell  across  in  my 
dreams.  A  minister  once  said  in  our  chapel 
that  it  don't  do  to  make  use  of  Christ's  words 
as  he  meant  them,  but  according  to." 


262  LOVE-ACRE 

"I've  only  known  one  Christian  in  my 
life,"  said  Dr.  Bligh,  "and  he  died  of  it." 

"I  daresay,"  said  Tobias  gently.  "The 
human  heart  in  me  'ave  often  quailed  before 
the  outbreaks  as  'ave  come  upon  me  by  livin' 
the  word  and  not  only  listenin'  to  the  doc- 
trine." 

"It's  the  big  man  who  willingly  dies  for 
the  truth,"  said  Dr.  Bligh.  "The  little  ones, 
at  the  worst,  can  but  stone  him  to  death." 

"When  I  was  shepherding,"  said  Tobias, 
"everything  seemed  such  wonder  and  glory 
that  no  disaster  seemed  possible.  The  lambs 
and  the  clouds  and  the  hills  fell  in  line  with 
the  Scriptures  and  my  thoughts.  When  a 
maid  gave  me  her  heart  it  was  just  the 
same.  It  was  compassed  in  what  I'd  learnt 
at  night  from  the  moon  and  the  stars  and 
the  great  silence.  Even  when  the  first  dis- 
aster fell,  it  was  like  the  sleet  and  the  thun- 
der and  a  power  of  things,  apparently  harm- 
ful, I'd  grown  to  see  the  meanin'  of  in  win- 
ter and  spring." 


THE    PILGRIM  263 

"Hush!"  said  Dr.  Bligh,  as  he  slipped 
away  a  pillow  and  laid  Tobias  flat  on  his 
mattress.  "Wait  a  moment." 

Tobias  took  a  few  deep  breaths  and  mum- 
bled out : 

"I've  learnt  some  of  the  secrets,  though. 
Nothing  can  take  them  from  my  heart,  and 
they  pan  out  wonderful  near  to  what  no- 
body 'ave  ever  taught  me  but  the  dumb 
beasts  and  the  flowers.  A  dream  altered 
everything  when  I  was  twenty,  and  nothin' 
but  dying  will  bring  the  fulfilment." 

"You  never  married  then?"  asked  Dr. 
Bligh. 

Tobias  smoothed  the  sheet  with  his  thin 
hand. 

"Only  in  a  manner  of  speaking,"  said 
Tobias. 

Dr.  Bligh  stroked  his  mustache  to  hide  a 
smile. 

"You  are  credited  with  a  great  knowledge 
of  women,"  he  said. 

"You  see,"  said  Tobias,  "it  was  a  slip  and 


264  LOVE-ACRE 

miss  job  altogether.  We  was  plighted  on 
St.  Patrick's  day,  but  before  the  next  one 
came  round  ruin  was  on  us.  Perhaps  it  'ave 
all  been  for  the  best.  I  can  never  feel  cer- 
tain. When  I  was  shepherding,  it  was  the 
darkest  nights  when  the  stars  shone  bright- 
est, but  the  sunshine  always  held  my  spirit 
at  its  liveliest." 

Dr.  Bligh  wiped  the  tired  face  as  Tobias 
went  on  slowly  and  with  more  difficulty. 

"Love  'ave  never  been  a  pastime  with  me," 
he  said,  "but  a  world  of  meanin',  same  as 
the  Gospel  itself.  The  maid  I  never  married 
is  the  one  woman  I've  cared  about  and  she 
be  still  the  woman  of  my  dreams.  She  was 
best  off  to  be  rid  of  me.  No  one  saw  that 
clearer  than  Tobias  Trewidden.  Besides, 
what  else  was  she  to  do  ?  The  thought  of  her 
sweet  manners  often  came  over  me  like 
a  flood  when  I  was  alone  with  the  dumb 
ones.  She  was  a  maze  of  wonder  and 
beauty." 

Tobias  tried  to  get  up,  and  the  doctor 


THE    PILGRIM  265 

propped  him  in  a  sitting  position  to  ease  the 
coughing. 

"She  left  you?"  queried  Dr.  Bligh. 

"They  all  did,"  said  Tobias  simply. 
"There  was  nothing  else  to  do,  seemly.  I 
nearly  left  myself,  in  a  manner  of  speaking, 
same  as  mad  folks  do.  I  don't  fancy  I'd 
quite  reckoned  with  the  make  of  the  world 
nor  of  them  in  it.  I'd  lived  so  much  in 
fancies  and  make-believe." 

"What  puUed  you  out?"  asked  Dr.  Bligh. 

"A  baby,"  said  Tobias. 

"Good  heavens!"  cried  Dr.  Bligh.  "They 
are  right,  then?  Are  you  a  father?" 

"Only  in  a  manner  of  speaking,"  said  To- 
bias. "It  was  like  everything  else  about  me, 
a  half  and  half  and  betwixt  and  between 
sort  of  thing.  The  baby  was  a  dead  one, 
you  see.  All  the  tribulations  and  trials  over 
it  'ave  alms  made  me  feel  a  bit  as  if  it  was 
my  own.  That,  and  having  its  mother  to 
tend  same  as  a  child." 

Dr.  Bligh  moistened  the  dry  and  purple 


266  LOVE-ACRE 

lips.  "It  may  hurt  you  too  much  to  go  on/* 
he  said. 

"Oh !  I  feel  I'd  like  you  to  know,  sir.  It's 
just  fine  having  this  handshake  before  I  goes 
round  land.  You  see,  sir,  how  could  anyone 
do  anything  else  but  shun  me?  It's  no  blame 
to  them  as  can't  see  in  the  darkness  like  a 
cat.  Even  if  I  could  have  tried  to  make  it 
clear,  words  confuse  some  things,  and  only 
muddle  matters  more.  It  would  have  meant 
telling  my  dreams  and  the  great  watchword 
too." 

"Try  and  tell  me,"  said  Dr.  Bligh.  "I've 
an  Irish  brain,  you  know,  and  it  gets  hold 
quickly."  He  spoke  flippantly  to  pull  him- 
self together,  for  the  skeleton  form  and  face 
of  Tobias  were  moving  him  strangely. 

Tobias  leaned  over  toward  the  doctor. 

"I  was  delivering  milk  for  the  first  time 
and  on  the  first  morning  after  I'd  got  my 
job,"  said  Tobias,  "when  a  neighbor,  Mrs. 
Carbines,  the  grocer's  wife,  ran  out  in  a  ter- 
rible fluster  and  begged  me  to  stay  in  the 


THE    PILGRIM  267 

house  while  she  ran  to  a  neighbor  to  fetch 
the  doctor.  I  never  gave  it  a  thought,  but 
just  tied  the  pony  to  the  gate  and  went  into 
the  kitchen.  I'd  no  sooner  stepped  in  than 
I  heard  the  maid-servant,  Mathilda,  call  me 
from  upstairs.  'Tobias,'  she  said,  'be  that 
you?'  I  wondered  how  she  knew,  but  it  ap- 
pears it  had  got  about  that  I'd  a  job  and 
would  soon  be  married,  for  luck  was  coming 
in  on  every  hand.  She  begged  me  for  the 
love  of  God  to  go  up  to  her.  Her  voice  was 
pitiful  and  I  could  hear  she  was  some  fright- 
ened and  in  pain.  I  never  thought  no  more 
about  it  but  ran  up  to  where  she  was  in  bed. 
She  was  white  as  white  and  held  out  her 
hands.  I  can  see  her  now." 

There  was  a  pause.  Presently  Tobias 
went  on  slowly  and  quietly,  but  stopped  now 
and  then  for  breath. 

"  'Tobias,'  said  the  maid  to  me,  'don't  say 
me  nay.  Go  to  that  box  and  take  out  a  par- 
cel you'll  find  there  and  bury  it  or  drown  it 
'afore  nigh  time.  It's  my  dead  little  baby/ 


268  LOVE-ACRE 

I  thought  I  should  have  dropped  as  she  said 
it.  'Have  patience,'  she  screamed,  'or  I'm  a 
ruined  woman.'  I  trembled  like  a  willow  in 
the  wind.  'Have  patience,'  she  cried  again, 
'or  they'll  hang  me.'  My  dream  of  the  night 
before  was  close  on  my  spirit,  and,  like  one 
in  a  trance,  I  opened  the  box.  Before  I 
knew  where  I  was  the  poor  little  dead  worm 
was  in  my  cart  and  Mrs.  Carbines  back  in 
the  cottage.  As  I  drove  off  I  saw  the  doc- 
tor tearing  along  with  a  very  serious  face. 
I  seemed  to  be  no  good  at  my  work  all  the 
morning.  I  gave  the  customers  wrong  meas- 
ure and  change  and  entered  things  forth  and 
back,  for  the  thought  of  the  little  baby  con- 
fused my  mind.  I  touched  the  parcel  again 
and  again,  but  I'd  no  stomach  to  open  it." 

The  doctor  handed  Tobias  a  cup  of  hot 
milk  he  had  brought  in  a  thermos  flask. 

"The  police  should  have  dealt  with  it,"  he 
said. 

"So  they  did  later,"  said  Tobias.  "That 
night  I  tried  to  bury  the  parcel  in  the  gar- 


THE    PILGRIM  269 

den  when  it  was  dark,  but  I  smelt  a  neigh- 
bor's tobacco  smoke  over  the  wall  and  felt 
he  could  somehow  know  what  I  was  doing. 
I  began  to  wish  I'd  refused  the  maid  and 
then  I  knew  it  was  all  meant.  You  see," 
said  Tobias  softly,  "patience  was  my  moth- 
er's watchword  to  me.  At  last  I  thought  of 
the  mare  as  drawed  the  milk  cart,  and,  with- 
out asking  permission,  I  jumped  on  her  and 
galloped  to  Tommy's  Pond,  which  lies  dark 
and  low  among  a  lot  of  tall  trees,  not  far 
from  the  main  road.  I  threw  the  parcel  into 
the  water  at  last.  I  heard  a  great  splash  at 
the  same  time  and  a  dog  was  after  it.  I 
jumped  in,  scarcely  knowing  if  I  was  in  my 
reasonable  senses.  Sandy,  the  ratting  ter- 
rier, had  followed  me.  I  fought  him  in  the 
water,  but  it  was  no  use.  He  swam  to  shore 
with  the  thing  in  his  mouth  and  I  after  him. 
The  moon  had  got  up  by  then  and  we  were 
met  by  two  constables  on  the  bank.  It 
appears  they'd  been  on  the  look-out  all 
day." 


270  LOVE-ACRE 

"What  an  infernal  mix  up,"  said  Dr. 
Bligh.  "Surely  you  were  able  to  prove  your 
innocence?" 

Tobias  coughed  and  laughed. 

"Seemly,  that's  the  last  thing  as  anybody 
who  be  in  the  right  can  do,"  he  said.  "It's 
what  folks  makes  up  their  minds  you  are,  or 
what  they  thinks  you've  done,  and  not  what 
you  really  are,  what  makes  or  mars  you, 
seemly.  They  told  me  my  best  plan  was  to 
be  silent.  It  appears  they  fathered  the  child 
on  me,  and  the  girl  wouldn't  deny  it,  as  the 
real  father  was  a  chapel-goer  and  a  married 
man  with  an  honest  name  to  support."  To- 
bias clasped  his  hands  together.  "If  I  was  a 
'vengeful  sort  of  chap  I'd  feel  forced  to 
have  a  word  yet  with  that  man.  He'm  go- 
ing to  his  grave  in  honor  and  I'm  dying  in 
shame.  If  I'd  known  at  the  time  that  he 
was  the  coward  who  gave  the  fifty  pounds 
to  us  when  we  was  married,  I'd  have  sent  it 
back  with  a  very  unchristian  speech  along 
with  it.  But  I  never  knew  for  years." 


THE   PILGRIM  271 

"What  happened,"  asked  Dr.  Bligh, 
"when  the  police  opened  the  parcel?" 

"There  was  nothin'  but  talk  and  fuss  for 
days,"  went  on  Tobias.  "All  the  neighbors 
believed  I'd  murdered  it,  and  I  only  escaped 
because  the  doctor  said  the  little  lungs  of 
the  baby  had  never  worked  and  that  it  was 
born  dead.  They'd  have  brought  it  in  as 
manslaughter  and  that  saved  me  from  more 
than  the  rope,  for  I'd  rather  have  died  right 
away  than  have  been  shut  out  from  the  sun 
and  the  fields,  even  for  a  term.  The  minis- 
ter and  the  clergyman  and  the  magistrates 
talked  it  over,  it  seems,  and  they  said  if 
I'd  marry  the  girl  and  make  her  honest 
they'd  just  dismiss  me  with  a  warning.  I 
said  I  was  bespoke  to  another  girl.  This 
dragged  her  dear  name  in  and  she  were 
fetched." 

Tobias  lay  back  exhausted  and  murmured : 
"That  were  the  real  crucifixion,  sir,  and  it 
eats  in  me  still  like  rust." 

"Wait  a  bit,"  said  Dr.  Bligh.    "Hearing 


272  LOVE-ACRE 

this  takes  it  out  of  me  even.    To  have  en- 
dured it  must  have  been  hell." 

Tobias  went  on  in  a  thick  whisper. 

"If  I  could  have  spared  her  I'd  have  sold 
my  soul  to  the  devil,  but  somehow  they  got 
me  by  the  throat,  in  a  manner  of  speaking, 
when  they  wanted  me  to  leave  she  and  take 
another.  When  I  could  bring  myself  to 
look  upon  she  I  saw  she  was  scared  and  tor- 
mented, like  a  rabbit  with  the  dogs  right  on 
it.  When  they  asked  her  if  she  was  my 
sweetheart  she  looked  fit  to  drop." 

"She  said  yes,  I  hope,"  said  Dr.  Bligh. 
"The  worst  woman  comes  out  true  blue  at 
these  times." 

Tobias  had  a  f  ar-a-way  look  in  his  eyes. 

"I'm  sure,  had  it  been  at  all  possible,  she 
would  have  done  all  a  girl  can  do,  but  you 
see  I  gave  her  no  chance.  My  heart  seemed 
tied  with  red-hot  bands  in  my  chest.  It  came 
over  me  like  a  dream  how  the  neighbors 
would  buffet  and  torment  her.  She  could 
never  have  no  pride  in  me  again.  I  was  to 


THE   PILGRIM  273 

be  a  byword  and  it  would  be  shameful  to  be 
seen  with  me,  much  less  to  marry  me." 

"She  failed  you!"  cried  the  doctor.  "My 
God!  she  was  no  Irish  woman." 

Tobias  smiled. 

"All  women  be  like  ewes  in  a  storm,"  he 
said,  "and  rush  to  any  shelter  if  the  gale  be 
too  fierce.  Afore  she'd  time  to  answer,  I 
called  out  what  came  into  my  head  like  a 
swear  word.  'I'm  willin'  to  marry  the 
mother  of  the  child.'  After  I'd  said  it  I 
could  have  eat  my  tongue  out." 

"So  I  should  think,"  said  Dr.  Bligh. 
"What  on  earth  made  you  do  it  if  the  child 
was  not  yours?" 

Tobias  spoke  very  slowly. 

"It  was  just  seein'  my  sweetheart's  eyes 
full  of  terror  and  hatred,"  he  said.  "As  she 
looked  upon  me,  I  knew  it  was  the  call — the 
call  in  which  'Patience'  was  the  watchword. 
It  flooded  me  all  of  a  sudden  and  the  balm 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  fell  on  me  and  I  knew 
I  had  given  she  the  fullest  of  love's  tokens." 


274  LOVE-ACRE 

"The  love  of  a  lifetime  in  a  moment  of 
madness,"  said  Dr.  Bligh. 

"Not  madness,"  said  Tobias.  "I  had  died 
that  she  could  live,  that  was  all,"  he  went 
on  simply.  "Even  if  she  never  knew  the 
truth,  something  of  the  meanin'  of  the  great 
love  we'd  spoken  of  in  the  shepherding  days 
would  lighten  her  heart.  She'd  surely  guess 
some  day  what  my  gift  was,  and  so  love 
me  still.  I  never  saw  her  no  more  after  that. 
They  carried  her  away,  for  she  fainted  with 
terror  and  sorrow." 

Dr.  Bligh  blew  his  nose  as  he  said  almost 
gaily: 

"You're  a  sporting  chap,  Trewidden.  So 
you  married?" 

"Iss!"  said  Tobias  wearily,  "but  it  were 
never  nothin'  but  tending  my  lawful  wife 
night  and  day.  Her  nerves  were  destroyed, 
they  said,  and  she'd  never  be  no  use  no  more. 
She  upbraided  me  for  my  part  in  all  the 
mishap  and  talked  continual  of  the  dead 
baby.  She  told  the  neighbors  I  beat  her  and 


THE    PILGRIM  275 

kept  her  short  of  victuals."  Tobias  smiled. 
"That  was  the  bit  of  real  truth  in  the  maze 
of  talk  over  me.  It  was  hard  work  at  last 
to  make  even  cinder  tea  or  buy  skim  milk 
for  bread  and  sops.  I  lost  one  job  after 
another  through  the  rumors  which  followed 
us.  My  father  cast  me  off,  and  anyway  I 
could  never  have  stayed  in  the  village  where 
Loveday  lived.  At  last  I  came  here  because 
the  doctor  said  the  sea  salt  swould  cure  my 
wife,  and  I  happened,  through  saving  a  dog 
one  day,  to  fall  in  with  a  vet  at  Pinover  who 
boarded  out  some  cats  and  dogs  with  us 
when  his  place  was  overcrowded.  Their 
cries  were  often  put  down  by  the  neighbors 
to  me  beating  my  wife.  Bit  by  bit  the  whole 
story  of  my  shame  got  out,  with  more  tacked 
on  to  it,  and  a  nest  of  adders  would  have  had 
more  reasonable  chance  than  we  had  of  a 
peaceful  life.  Mathilda  died  at  last  of  a 
long-named  pain  in  her  head  and  her  death 
was  unholy  and  tempestuous.  I've  no  call 


276  LOVE-ACRE 

for  remorse,  sir,  for  I  tended  she  as  if  she'd 
been  the  other  woman." 

"Since  then,"  said  Dr.  Bligh,  "you  and 
the  animals  have  heen  the  best  of  friends?" 

A  light  broke  over  the  dying  man's  face. 

"They  and  the  holy  spirits,"  he  said. 
"When  the  world  have  been  most  darkened 
for  me,  strange  lights  came  as  if  from  the 
stars  and  the  moon  and  the  rainbows.  The 
travellers  on  the  road,  too,  have  told  me 
their  sorrows  and  we've  comforted  one  an- 
other." 

"I  thought  it  was  so  desolate  here?"  said 
Dr.  Bligh. 

"They've  been  sent,"  said  Tobias  simply. 
"I  never  refused  anyone,  and  a  tramp  or  a 
tempest-driven  soul  have  come  toward  my 
little  cottage  without  fear.  There've  been 
wondrous  days  and  lovely  nights.  It's  been 
a  great  homesickness,  that  is  all." 

Dr.  Bligh  bent  over  the  dying  man  and 
stroked  his  brow. 

"You'll  be  at  peace  soon  now,  Tobias  Tre- 


THE   PILGRIM  277 

widden,"  he  said.  "Give  me  that  woman's 
name  and  address  and  let  me  tell  her  the 
truth  at  last." 

Tobias  tried  to  raise  himself,  but  fell  back 
gasping. 

"The  truth  is  surely  in  her  heart,"  he  mut- 
tered, "and  will  keep  till  the  Judgment  Day. 
The  lies  as  'ave  festered  in  them  as  be  my 
natural  enemies  don't  count,  but  she  loved 
me,  and  love  can't  harbor  no  lies."  The 
voice  grew  fainter  and  Dr.  Bligh  bent  close 
to  the  man's  lips  in  order  to  hear. 

"It  might  wound  her  to  reckon  with  it 
now  or  to  know  what  it  have  spelt  to  me. 
She  were  wonderful  tender,  you  see,  and  so 
very  winsome." 

Dr.  Bligh  bit  his  lips. 

"It  must  have  been  a  living  death,"  he 
said. 

"Not  with  love  to  support  me,"  said  To- 
bias, "and  I  did  love  she  so  very  true.  'You 
love  me  for  myself,'  she  said  once,  and  that's 
how  Fan-Fan  loved  Trailing  Topsy.  Don't 


278  LOVE-ACRE 

fret  she.  She've  been  married  these  ten 
years  and  more  and  has  four  children."  Dr. 
Bligh  felt  the  man's  pulse  and  whispered. 

"Trewidden,  leave  me  free  about  this  mat- 
ter. Just  say  I  may  tell  her.  I'll  find  her 
all  right.  Just  nod  your  head  if  you  can't 
speak." 

A  faint  smile  accompanied  the  whispered 
answer. 

"Sir,  I  do  trust  you  as  if  you  was  four- 
footed."  The  eyes  closed  and  only  a  faint 
breathing  was  heard.  Suddenly  a  little 
sound  of  soft  laughter  came  from  the 
parched  lips  of  Tobias. 

"Why  arn't  you  in  white?  Why  in  blue?" 
he  murmured. 

"Delirious,  thank  God,"  muttered  the  doc- 
tor. 

The  distant  bark  of  a  dog  was  the  only 
sound  as  Tobias  Trewidden  passed  into  a 
rigid  peace. 

Dr.  Bligh  opened  the  window  wide  and 
waited  a  moment.  A  robin  and  a  thrush 


THE    PILGRIM  279 

hopped  on  the  bushes  close  by.  The  robin 
suddenly  sang,  and  as  the  doctor  stepped 
back  into  the  room  a  smile  had  settled  upon 
the  dead  face  of  Tobias  Trewidden. 


PAET  VIII 
THE  WOMAN 


THE  WOMAN 

A  FEW  days  after  Tobias  Trewidden's 
death,  Dr.  Bligh,  partly  from  curiosity  and 
partly  from  a  desire  to  do  justice  to  the  dead, 
went  to  the  address  he  had  got  from  the 
father  of  Tobias.  He  had  made  it  his  care 
to  tell  him  of  his  son's  death,  but  gave  no 
details  and  did  not  stay  to  discuss  the  matter. 
He  hurried  to  the  house  of  Tobias  Trewid- 
den's old  love.  He  found  a  row  of  villas  in 
the  street  where  the  "Laurels"  was  situated. 
A  few  straggling  chrysanthemums  did  duty 
for  laurels,  and  two  terra-cotta  dogs,  with 
mouths  wide  open  and  lolling  tongues, 
guarded  the  grained  door  on  which  the  doc- 
tor knocked.  It  was  opened  by  a  dowdy 
maid-servant  with  loose  red  hair  and  a  cap 
supported  chiefly  by  her  left  ear. 

"Is  your  mistress  at  home?"  asked  Dr. 
Bligh. 

283 


284  LOVE-ACRE 

"Yes,"  said  the  girl,  "step  inside." 

Dr.  Bligh  was  ushered  into  a  little  parlor 
and  there  left  for  some  time.  He  heard 
voices  upstairs  and  much  shuffling  of  feet. 
The  ships  of  blown  glass  on  the  mantel- 
piece, the  stuffed  birds  under  a  case  and  a 
stuffed  squirrel  on  a  stand  were  the  largest 
ornaments  in  a  room  crammed  with  knick- 
knacks  of  every  sort  and  kind.  A  small 
harmonium,  whose  top  was  covered  with  pho- 
tographs of  men  and  women  smiling  in  stiff 
clothes,  stood  in  the  corner. 

The  door  suddenly  opened  and  the  woman 
of  Tobias  Trewidden's  dreams  entered.  She 
was  full-busted  and  with  a  double,  if  not 
treble,  chin.  Her  self-satisfied  eyes  looked  a 
little  puzzled  as  she  came  forward  towards 
her  visitor. 

"Forgive  my  intrusion,"  said  Dr.  Bligh. 
"I'm  a  doctor.  Dr.  Bligh,  of  Venvin.  A 
week  ago  I  was  at  the  death-bed  of  Tobias 
Trewidden."  He  paused.  The  woman  be- 
fore him  put  a  plump  hand  to  her  forehead. 


THE    WOMAN  285 

He  noticed  how  deeply  the  wedding-ring 
was  embedded  in  her  flesh. 

"I  thought  you  would  care  to  know  his 
end,"  said  Dr.  Bligh. 

A  giggle  was  the  answer. 

"This  is  the  Laurels,"  she  said,  "and  I  am 
Mrs.  Albert  Tremayne." 

Dr.  Bligh  coughed. 

"I  know,"  he  said.  "Once,  I  believe,  you 
were  to  have  married  Tobias  Trewidden." 

She  paled  and  her  plump  hands  clasped 
each  other  in  agitation. 

"I'd  fair  forgotten  who  he  was  for  the 
moment,"  she  said  anxiously.  She  looked 
nervously  toward  the  door.  "Bert,  that's  my 
husband,  you  know,  can't  bear  any  of  that 
mentioned.  You  may  not  have  heard  that 
there  was  a  dreadful  scandal.  Bert  says  To- 
bias was  a  blackguard  from  birth  and  don't 
even  allow  me  to  speak  of  him.  That's 
wiry,"  she  spoke  apologetically,  "I  didn't 
fall  on  the  name  at  once.  We  just  put  him 
aside,  in  a  manner  of  speaking,  when  he 


286  LOVE-ACRE 

married  that  girl  as  was  as  bad  as  himself." 

"Has  it  ever  struck  you,"  asked  Dr.  Bligh, 
"that  he  was  faithful  in  spirit  to  you  all 
these  years  and  innocent  of  the  crimes  laid 
to  his  charge?" 

The  woman  laughed. 

"Go  on,"  she  said  familiarly,  "that  was  all 
proved,  and,  even  if  it  wasn't,  it  was  a  poor 
job  anyway.  He  was  a  wastrel." 

"Was  he?"  asked  Dr.  Bligh.  "I  wish 
you'd  seen  him  die." 

She  shuddered. 

"I'm  some  thankful  he's  really  dead,  for 
in  the  back  of  my  mind  I  dreaded  some  out- 
burst or  other.  He  and  Bert  had  a  bad 
fight  once,  and  Bert  said  he  wished  he  could 
have  a  second." 

"What  makes  you  think  him  a  wastrel?" 
asked  Dr.  Bligh. 

"Well,  you  see,  when  Ma  and  me  come  to 
look  well  into  things  we  found  he'd  saved 
nothing  at  all.  He  was  a  man  to  scatter,  not 
to  save." 


THE   WOMAN  287 

The  doctor  smiled. 

"He  died  without  a  single  farthing  in  the 
world,"  he  said,  "and  had  scarcely  a  pillow 
for  his  head." 

"More  fool  he,"  said  Mrs.  Tremayne.  "A 
poor  life  it  must  have  been  for  his  wife. 
He'd  allus  have  been  a  worrit  with  his  silly 
fancies." 

"His  dreams  seemed  to  have  turned  into 
peace  at  last,"  said  the  doctor.  "He  had 
lived  so  long  alone  he  was  never  alone." 

"Well,  that's  as  funny  as  his  clap-trap 
talk,"  she  said.  "Ma  have  said  to  me  many 
a  time,  'It's  just  been  God's  Providence, 
Loveday,  my  handsome,  that  you've  married 
a  man  as  can  drive  a  hard  bargain  and  one 
who  doesn't  grumble  at  his  victuals.'  Mrs. 
Tremayne  tossed  her  head  and  smiled  as  she 
went  on,  "Bert  be  some  dapper  chap,  I  can 
tell  you,  and  the  four  children  takes  after 
him." 

Her  face  beamed  with  pride. 


288  LOVE-ACRE 

"Tobias  Trewidden  had  also  children  of 
sorts,"  said  the  Irishman. 

"There  now.  Well,  I  never.  I  heard  he'd 
none.  We've  four.  Bert  'ave  saved  a  pile 
already  for  them  when  they  grows  up,  be- 
sides bein'  insured  in  four  clubs.  He  can 
wear  a  gold  watch-chain  with  the  best  and 
he's  a  grand  scholar d  too." 

"Listen,"  said  Dr.  Bligh,  leaning  forward 
and  looking  keenly  at  Mrs.  Tremayne.  "To- 
bias Trewidden  was  a  finer  scholar  than  your 
husband." 

Mrs.  Tremayne  laughed. 

"How  can  you  know  that?"  Then,  with 
a  sudden  fear  in  her  face,  she  cried,  "You 
ain't  met  Bert  afore  seein'  me,  have  you? 
Nothin'  would  rile  him  like  being  minded  of 
Tobias.  They  was  rivals,  you  see,  though 
if  I'd  known  Bert  was  really  after  me  I'd 
never  have  given  a  thought  to  Tobias,  but 
he  never  let  on  till  the  night  the  two  of  them 
had  knocked  each  other  about." 

"No,  I've  never  seen  your  husband,"  said 


THE    WOMAN  289 

Dr.  Bligh,  "but  I  know  that  their  colleges 
have  not  been  the  same,  so  the  scholarship 
differs."  He  smiled. 

Mrs.  Tremayne  wrinkled  her  brows. 

"Bert  ain't  never  been  to  no  college,"  she 
said,  "but  we  means  to  put  Alf  to  a  grand 
school  and  then  after  that  to  college  and 
make  a  gentleman  of  him  anyway.  He'll 
help  the  others  and  the  girls  must  marry 
swells." 

"Tobias  Trewidden's  scholarship  was 
greater  than  can  be  got  even  at  Oxford  or 
Cambridge,"  said  Dr.  Bligh. 

"Goodness !"  she  said  reflectively,  "as  far  as 
I  can  remember  he  never  even  wrote  me  a  sin- 
gle proper  love  letter.  Bert  began  his,  I  own, 
with  ruled  lines,  but  he  ended  like  a  gentle- 
man born  afore  we  was  married  and  never 
made  use  of  crosses  for  kisses  at  all.  Tobias 
was  dust  and  ashes  by  the  side  of  Bert." 

Dr.  Bligh  got  up  to  go. 

"It  was  flame — all  flame,  when  I  knew: 
him,"  he  said. 


290  LOVE-ACRE 

"I  don't  understand,"  said  Mrs.  Tre- 
mayne.  "Had  he  gone  into  a  new  line  of 
business  or  what?" 

"Quite  a  new  line,  I  fancy,  but  one  that 
he  must  have  inclined  towards  from  a 
youngster." 

"Whatever  was  it?"  asked  Mrs.  Tre- 
mayne.  "Fireworks  or  the  electric  light 
business,  perhaps?  Bert  says  electric  light 
'ave  a  lot  of  money  in  it." 

"This  work  had  no  money  in  it,"  said  Dr. 
Bligh,  "and  I've  not  met  anyone  yet  who 
would  care  to  carry  it  on.  It  kills  worse 
than  dynamite." 

"Lor'!"  said  Mrs.  Tremayne,  "just  like 
him,  and  yet  he  told  me  once  he'd  rather  be 
a  gardener  than  anything." 

"Perhaps  he  is,  who  knows?"  said  Dr. 
Bligh,  smiling.  "I  never  thought  of  that." 

"Is?"  asked  Mrs.  Tremayne.  "I  thought 
you  said  he  was  dead?" 

"What  is  death?"  said  Dr.  Bligh.  "As  a 
medical  man  I've  never  been  able  to  tell 


THE    WOMAN  291 

where  life  really  ends  or  death  begins,  and 
Tobias  Trewidden  has  made  me  more  bewil- 
dered than  ever." 

He  raised  his  hat  as  he  left  the  little  gar- 
den. 

Mrs.  Tremayne  called  her  servant  hur- 
riedly into  the  parlor  and  the  two  peered 
behind  the  long  muslin  curtains.  "Sarah," 
said  Mrs.  Tremayne,  "you  see  that  gentle- 
man?" 

"Yes,  m'am,"  said  the  servant. 

"That's  seemly  a  madman,  like  one  I  knew 
years  ago.  Don't  for  goodness  sake  tell 
master  he've  been  here.  He'd  be  some 
angry,  for  I'd  have  to  tell  him  all  he  said." 

"What  shall  I  say  if  he  do  come  again?" 
asked  the  girl. 

"Oh!  anything,"  said  Mrs.  Albert  Tre- 
mayne. "Say  I'm  dead  and  buried,  if  you 
like." 

It  might  have  been  the  truth,  judging 
from  the  horrified  look  on  the  face  of  the 
untidy  little  drudge. 


EPILOGUE 


EPILOGUE 

There  was  a  great  rejoicing  in  Love- 
Acre.  A  Gardener  had  brought  a  tiny  seed 
developed  in  a  human  heart  from  a  bit  of 
fluff  like  the  children  blow  into  the  air  in 
the  green  meadows  on  sunny  days.  Blown 
from  Love- Acre  to  the  World- Acre,  a  seed 
had  grown  from  this  bit  of  fluff.  But  it 
remained  only  a  seed.  It  did  not  germinate. 
The  Gardener's  sojourn  in  the  World- Acre 
had  seemed  very  long  to  him  and  his  tiny 
gift  to  the  Gardeners  in  the  great  flower 
world  of  Love- Acre  appeared  of  no  ac- 
count. It  was  all  he  had,  however,  and  he 
laid  it  down  shyly  in  a  bed  of  nettles.  He 
was  so  weary  he  fell  asleep  after  he  had 
planted  it.  When  he  awoke  the  seed  had 
burst  into  small  but  lovely  flowers  in  the  con- 
genial soil.  The  flowers  had  a  strange  vital- 
295 


296  LOVE-ACRE 

ity  and  an  unusual  power.  They  killed  all 
weeds  through  their  sweetness  as  they  grew. 
The  Gardeners  delayed  naming  the  flower 
until  they  had  watched  it  more  closely.  It 
developed  more  unusual  characteristics  day 
by  day.  The  blossoms  could  withstand  any 
drought  or  any  heat,  and  they  made  a  soft 
lilting  music  with  their  petals  as  they  opened 
to  the  Light.  This  sound  vibrated  the  ether 
so  strangely  that  one  day  it  was  taken  up 
by  invisible  players  and  dissolved  into  a 
chorus  so  glorious  that  a  thousand  violins  in 
the  World- Acre  would  have  been  like  a  boy's 
penny  whistle  in  comparison.  The  Garden- 
ers all  assembled  when  this  happened  and 
the  Lights  from  many  worlds  flashed  upon 
them.  A  Voice  seemed  to  answer  the  Silence 
of  the  Lights  as  they  lit  up  the  places  which 
once  were  desolate  and  which  now  were  cov- 
ered by  the  new  blossoms. 

"We  will  blow  back"  said  the  Voice,  "in 
thousands,  the  seeds  of  this  tiny  flower  to 
the  World-Acre  and  it  shall  bloom  there  as 


EPILOGUE  297 

here,  making  the  unclean  clean  and  the  ugly 
places  beautiful" 

All  the  harps  in  the  World- Acre  seemed 
to  have  joined  the  violins,  thought  the  little 
Gardener  who  had  brought  the  seed  and 
who  was  sitting  humbly  before  the  Voice 
and  the  Lights.  The  music  was  more  than 
any  mortal  could  have  heard  and  lived,  and 
the  Lights  would  have  blinded  one  accus- 
tomed to  seeing  with  only  human  eyes. 
Again  rose  the  Voice,  the  Voice  of  a  Head 
Gardener  in  Love- Acre,  once  known  in  the 
World-Acre  as  Emanuel: 

"The  Seed  of  the  Greater  Love  holds  the 
Flower  of  Joy  and  Joy  shall  be  its  name. 
The  Fruit  of  Joy  will  help  to  nourish  all  the 
Worlds.  As  the  Seed  could  not  germinate 
in  the  World- Acre,  the  Fruit  may  ripen  best 
in  other  Worlds  than  ours.  How  can  we 
tell?  But  we  must  prepare  the  Seeds  and 
cultivate  the  Flowers  for  the  Great  Harvest 
of  Fruit,  whether  it  be  here  or  there" 

As  the  Lights  vanished  and  the  Voice 


298  LOVE-ACRE 

ceased  the  new  Gardener  sank  once  more 
into  sleep.  The  journey  had  been  long  and 
the  home-coming  too  beautiful  to  be  borne 
without  a  little  rest.  The  after-glow  of  the 
Lights  illuminated  what  might  have  been, 
in  the  World- Acre,  a  woman's  form,  robed 
in  a  pale  blue  gown.  She  was  kneeling  by 
the  side  of  the  sleeping  Gardener,  with  her 
face  turned  towards  an  emerald  green  Light 
which  had  suddenly  appeared  in  her  trans- 
parent house. 


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UCLA  URUl 


REC'D  LD-URl 
JUN  091998 


THE  LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA? 
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